The Enneagram in Business Blog | A Blog by Ginger Lapid-Bogda, Ph.D.

Enneagram Theory: Psychological Defense Mechanisms and the Enneagram

2010-08-30T15:16:00.000-07:00

There is nothing so practical as a good theory.

- Kurt Lewin*

In this series of blogs, I’m selecting the Enneagram theories that I believe are the most accurate and most useful. I think it is essential, especially as the Enneagram grows and expands in usage, that we each think rigorously about which aspects of Enneagram theory are both true (or true-enough) and useful, allowing us to understand ourselves and grow in ways we might not do as well without them.

In this, the second, blog, I have chosen psychological defense mechanisms and the Enneagram. The rationale for this choice is that I believe that understanding the psychological defense mechanisms for each type are absolutely essential for our psychological development, but just as important, for our spiritual development and overall consciousness.

I want to explain my bias. I am a trained Gestalt therapist – though not a licensed psychotherapist – having trained with direct students of Fritz Perls. I have also followed a non-denominational spiritual practice for over 30 years, one that is more Eastern than Western. I have seen so many people grow psychologically and when they do, they usually – but not always – make inroads in the spiritual dimension as well. I have seen people who believe themselves to be spiritually evolved – and perhaps they are – who have gaping holes in their self-development. There are others who are highly engaged spiritually, but a mess psychologically. This latter group has taken what is known as a “spiritual bypass,” meaning they have bypassed doing their psychological work because they have convinced themselves that doing spiritual work makes the psychological unnecessary. They are “unworked” psychologically, meaning not very deeply aware of how they think, what they feel, and the consequences of what they do.

I have always valued doing psychological and spiritual growth, sometimes in tandem, at other times in an alternating fashion. But the interface between the psychological and spiritual realms offered by the Enneagram has been one of its biggest attractions for me.

I use the following criteria before I use a theory in my work:

What is it?
Who is the source; is that source reliable?
Is it a true enough model or theory that describes some aspect of reality better than other models?
Is it practical and useful; does it help us do something we can’t do as well without it?

Psychological Defense Mechanisms

What is it?

Defense mechanisms are unconscious psychological strategies used by individuals to deal with uncomfortable and difficult situations. These mechanisms work to reduce a person’s anxiety, sadness, and/or anger and to maintain his or her self-image. Individuals of all Enneagram styles use a variety of defense mechanisms, sometimes at the same time but also at different times; however, specific defense mechanisms are strongly associated with each style, and these style-based coping strategies are most obvious when individuals are dealing with difficult issues.

In terms of the Enneagram, understanding the primary defense mechanism of each style is a major key to unlocking the ego’s hold on us; the ego has nine specific forms, called Enneatypes. The stronger the defensiveness – and particularly the primary defense mechanism – the more active the ego is indicating self-defense. As a result, if we want to allow the ego to show itself in more pure form so we can explore, examine, and grow by reducing the ego’s hold on us, we find that underneath the defense there is a treasure trove of unexplored possibilities. In fact, we may conclude that this defense, something that protected us early on, is no longer needed or only needed when we choose to call upon its services.

Here the list of primary defense mechanisms by type, followed by a more in-depth explanation of each:

Ones: Reaction Formation

Twos: Repression

Threes: Identification

Fours: Introjection

Fives: Isolation

Sixes: Projection

Sevens: Rationalization

Eights: Denial

Nines: Narcotization

Ones: Reaction Formation

Reaction Formation is a defense mechanism by which individuals reduce or try to eliminate anxiety caused by their own thoughts, feelings, or behaviors that they consider unacceptable by responding in a manner that is the exact opposite of their real responses. The One’s active inner critic dictates what is acceptable based on social mores, contextual expectations, and moral principles, and reaction formation becomes a defensive remedy when Ones experience what they deem “unacceptable” reactions. A subtle example often seen in Ones is when they dislike someone yet are especially nice and polite to this person. A more blatant example – one that is not exclusive to Enneagram style Ones – is an individual who crusades against corporate corruption, only to be discovered later as having embezzled money from the organization.

Twos: Repression

Repression is a defense mechanism by which individuals hide information about themselves from themselves – for example, feelings, desires, wishes, aversions, fears, and needs – that are too difficult to acknowledge consciously. However, the repressed information doesn’t disappear; instead, expression of the repressed data is controlled or held down while it continues to influence the individual’s behavior. For example, Twos may feel anxious and need reassurance, but they may be only minimally aware of this. Instead of exploring these feelings or seeking comfort, the Two reassures another person who appears to be in distress.

Threes: Identification

Identification is a psychological defense mechanism in which a person unconsciously incorporates attributes and characteristics of another person into his or her own personality and sense of self. Identification is a way of bolstering one’s self-esteem by forming an imaginary or real alliance with an admired person, then taking on that person’s characteristics. When Threes model their own behavior after someone else or the idea they have of someone, they are usually not aware they are doing so. For this reason, it becomes complicated for them to untangle who they really are from this image. In particular, Threes identify most with images of individuals who are admired in the Three’s desired social context, and the image with which Threes identify often changes as their context changes.

Fours: Introjection

Introjection is a counter-intuitive defense mechanism. Instead of repelling critical information and negative experiences that can cause a person anxiety or pain, individuals introject the information – that is, they fully absorb, internalize, and incorporate these data into their sense of self. Fritz Perls, the father of Gestalt Therapy, refers to this phenomenon as swallowing something whole without being able to differentiate between information that is true from information that is untrue. Fours introject negative information – and repel positive data – about themselves as a way of coping with painful information and neutralizing external threats. They prefer to deal with self-inflicted damage rather than having to respond to criticism or rejection from others.

Fives: Isolation

Isolation occurs in Fives as a way for them to avoid feeling overwhelmed and empty. Fives isolate themselves by retreating into their minds, cutting themselves off from their feelings, and compartmentalizing – that is, isolating each part of themselves from the whole or the related parts. For example, Fives separate their thoughts from their feelings and/or feelings from behaviors, as well as separating their personal and work lives. Fives may also isolate themselves from other people and separate their relationships so that their friends never meet one another; in fact, some Fives even have secret lives.

Sixes: Projection

Projection is a psychological defense mechanism in which individuals unconsciously attribute their own unacceptable, unwanted, or disowned thoughts, emotions, motivations, attributes, and/or behaviors to others. While the projection may be positive, negative, or neutral, it occurs because the individuals who are projecting perceive the projected attributes as difficult to acknowledge or threatening to believe about themselves. Because Sixes make these attributions unconsciously, they imagine that they are true, although at a deeper level they are not entirely certain about this. Although Sixes use projection as a way to create some certainty and thus reduce their anxiety in ambiguous, uncertain, or potentially dangerous situations, these projections – particularly if they are negative in nature – ironically raise the Six’s anxiety level. In addition, when Sixes project either something negative or positive that is untrue, they create a false reality without knowing they are doing so.

Sevens: Rationalization

Rationalization is a defense mechanism by which individuals explain unacceptable thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in a way that entirely avoids or obscures their true motivations, intentions, or the effects of the behavior. When Sevens rationalize, they do so by positive reframing, justifying their behavior by explaining it in highly positive terms. Sevens use reframing to avoid pain, discomfort, sadness, guilt, and anxiety, as well as to avoid taking personal responsibility for what has occurred.

Eights: Denial

Denial is a defense mechanism by which individuals unconsciously negate something that makes them feel anxious by disavowing its very existence. These can include thoughts, feelings, wishes, sensations, needs, and other external factors that are unacceptable to the Eight for some reason. Denial comes in a variety of forms. A person may deny the reality of the unpleasant information altogether, admit that something is true but deny or minimize its seriousness, or admit that both the information and its severity are true but deny any personal responsibility for it.

Nines: Narcotization

Narcotization is a psychological defense mechanism in which individuals unconsciously numb themselves to avoid something that feels too large, complex, difficult, or uncomfortable to handle. Nines narcotize and distract themselves by engaging in prolonged rhythmic activities that are familiar, require very little attention, and provide comfort – for example, washing the dishes; working in the garden; continuous pleasure reading of books by the same author or within the same genre; going for a walk or a bike ride; engaging in frequent or extended casual conversations; or continuously changing channels on the TV. Nines also use daily routines such as morning or evening rituals to immunize themselves from being fully aware, and they feel agitated, irritated, or disoriented when these repetitive activities become disrupted.

The source?

The idea of defense mechanisms appears to have originated with Sigmund Freud and has been part of our modern psychological understanding since his time. There are numerous names for the most common defense mechanism people use, and modern psychologists sometimes group them in categories from “pathological” to “healthy.” But even healthy people use psychological defenses.

In addition, Gurdjieff refers to ‘buffers” that keep the ego in place, although he was likely referring more to the fixations or mental habits that align with each of the nine styles or the passions – emotional reactivity patterns – that get triggered when our egos are driving our responses. By deduction and by definition, defense mechanisms are “psychological buffers” that keep our psychological egos in place. By further deduction, reducing the impact of our defense mechanisms reduces the ego’s hold on us.

In terms of the Enneagram, I learned the primary defense mechanisms listed above from Helen Palmer’s first book, The Enneagram. I would assume these come from the work of Naranjo rather than Ichazo because Claudio is widely credited with having placed the psychological aspects of the 9 styles on the map, thus adding Western psychology to the Enneagram map. Given that psychological aspects of type include defense mechanisms, my logic has it that Claudio deserves credit for this. In addition, when I attended his 27 Enneagram Subtypes program in 2010, he artfully reviewed these mechanisms.

Are they true?

Can Freud, Naranjo, and Palmer be wrong? Yes, of course, but they are all extremely reliable sources who have worked with thousands of individuals over the years. Claudio, as a psychiatrist and student of Fritz Perls, would be likely to have the correct primary defense mechanisms for each type.

From my own personal experience, I remember being 20-years old and, on receiving a compliment from someone I barely knew, and said, “Well, I might be as good as you think I am if I weren’t so repressed!” In my late 20s I had a strange desire that made no sense to me at the time. I felt very constricted in space and longed to have a body-stretch pull on both arms and legs to give me more freedom. Of course, now I recognize that repression is the style Two defense mechanism, and I have been making great progress working to unleash more and repress less.

From my observations working with people of various Enneagram styles, the defense mechanisms map extremely well to the 9 styles. The additions I would make is for Enneagram Sevens. What I have observed is that if rationalization through reframing does not work, they move to blame of some sort (blame the situation or blame other people). A case could be made that this is secondary rationalization; that instead of reframing to make themselves look good, Sevens may reframe to make the other look bad.

Are they practical and useful?

I believe they are extraordinarily useful because they are accurate and practical. Here are just some of the ways I utilize this theory in my work:

Identifying a person’s Enneagram style: When people are sorting through the styles to determine which one fits them best, understanding the defense mechanism often helps them differentiate between two or three styles they are considering.

Self-development: Once we understand our style’s primary defense mechanism, we can them observe ourselves in the throes of using it. Once we can do this, we can ask ourselves what is really occurring within us, underneath what the defense mechanism is protecting. In addition, there are specific development activities for each style that soften the effects of the primary defense mechanism over time. For example, when Threes recognize they are over-identifying with their roles in real time, they can ask themselves probing questions – for example, Who am I? What am I feeling that my over-identification is masking? Fours can establish better filters for negative and positive feedback so they don’t automatically absorb the negative and reject the positive.

Coaching: Working with a client’s defense mechanisms is key to the client’s development. Observing the defense in action and then probing what lies beneath is often a major key that unlocks the client’s key issues.

And more about defense mechanisms

You can read a great deal more about defense mechanisms and the 9 Enneagram styles in my newest book, Bringing Out the Best in Everyone You Coach (McGraw-Hill 2009). The defense mechanisms for each style are described in more detail as are how coaches can best challenge the defense mechanism using a direct or indirect approach.

So agree with me, disagree with me, or add to what’s been said. But please don’t believe all this to be absolutely true just because I said so. Discover it for yourself. Explore, examine, and experience!

The next blog will be on the wings, the Enneagram styles on both sides of our core style.

*Kurt Lewin was a German-American psychologist of the early 20th century who is considered to a pioneer of modern social, organization, and applied psychology. Even more, force-field analysis, action research, and change theory all bear his name. Beyond this, National Training Laboratories (NTL) and the field of organization development (OD) owe their origins to Lewin and his work.

Coaching: Enneagram Head Center Styles: Five, Six, and Seven

2010-06-10T10:42:00.000-07:00

The three Enneagram styles that emanate from the Head Center of Intelligence, Fives, Sixes, and Sevens, each have a strategic response to the emotion of fear. Fives move away and retreat; Sixes anticipate, worry, and plan for possible negative contingencies; and Sevens avoid feeling afraid by engaging in something exciting, thinking about future possibilities, and reframing negative experiences into positive ones. Here are the five most important developmental areas for each Head Center style and a simple, profound question coaches can ask clients of this style.

Key Development Desires for Fives

To truly know themselves better using a systematic framework
To better understand and anticipate the feelings of others
To feel more comfortable and have more predictability when interacting with others
To be better acknowledged in the organization for their talents and skills
To experience and honor their feelings as much as they respect their thoughts

One Simple Question: What happens when you stop hiding (or retreating) and start showing yourself and being fully present?

Key Development Desires for Sixes

To feel more secure, certain, and confident
To be less reactive and more in control of themselves
To be able to truly believe in themselves and others to make good decisions and to effectively take care of situations
To not have to hide their anxieties, which includes not feeling anxious so frequently, thus having less of a need to hide their reactions
To be able to take conscious, deliberate, and effective action

One Simple Question: What happens when you stop worrying, planning or lurching forward and start relaxing and enjoying yourself: “free as a bird?”

Key Development Desires for Sevens

To learn something exciting and personally beneficial
To read others better and develop deeper and more consistent empathy
To transform their ideas into reality
To be taken more seriously by others
To feel more complete as a person

One Simple Question: What happens when you stop spinning, twirling, and thinking and start focusing and facing all of reality: the painful or difficult as well as the pleasurable and enjoyable?

You can read my new Enneagram-coaching book, Bringing Out the Best in Everyone you Coach (McGraw-Hill 2009), for comprehensive and subtle coaching methods, approaches, and techniques that work best with individuals of each Enneagram style.

This is the first of a three-part series on coaching with the Enneagram.

Coaching: Enneagram Heart Center Styles: Two, Three, and Four

2010-06-28T14:44:00.000-07:00

The three Enneagram styles that emanate from the Heart Center of Intelligence, Twos, Threes, and Fours, create an image for others to relate to – an image of likeability, success, and uniqueness, respectively – and then become dependent on the reactions of others for their sense of value and worth. Here are the five most important developmental areas for each Heart Center style and a simple, profound question coaches can ask clients of this style.

Key Development Desires for Twos

To feel less exhausted and depleted
To better help and serve others while also taking care of themselves
To develop relationships in which they can truly count on others rather than ones in which they are the person others can count on
To be able to say no and to express their real feelingswithout feeling guilty, anxious, or angry
To be less dependent on the responses of others and more reliant on their own sense of real inner strength and solidity

One Simple Question: What do you really need; what are your deepest aspirations?

Key Development Desires for Threes

To feel more successful without feeling the pressure of always having to prove themselves every time
To have better, more meaningful, and longer-lasting relationships
To be able to relax and just be, without feeling the need to constantly impress others
To experience themselves -- especially their true feelings -- at a deeper level
To find out what they really want for themselves, apart from what they believe their goals should be based on their work or social context

One Simple Question: Aside from what you do, who are you deep down inside?

Key Development Desires for Fours

To know more about themselves at the deepest levels and then become more truly self-accepting
To make lasting connections with others that can be sustained without having to constantly engage in deep, meaningful, and intense interactions
To be less volatile, emotional, and reactive and more calm, balanced, and satisfied
To feel more capable of making things happen and to manifest their dreams rather than feeling that things happen to them
To take in positive and negative feedback using refined filters to sort out what is true and useful from that which is not

One Simple Question: When you go underneath your kaleidoscope of feelings, what do you find?

You can read my new Enneagram-coaching book, Bringing Out the Best in Everyone You Coach (McGraw-Hill 2009), for comprehensive and subtle coaching methods, approaches, and techniques that work best with individuals of each Enneagram style.

This is the second of a three-part series on coaching with the Enneagram.

Coaching: Enneagram Body Center Styles: Eight, Nine, and One

2010-08-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

The three Enneagram styles that emanate from the Body Center of Intelligence, Eights, Nines, and Ones, have three different ways of responding to the emotion of anger. Eights have a need to express their anger full-throttle; Nines convince themselves that they feel no anger; and Ones control themselves because they believe that is the correct or best way to deal with this emotion. The Body Center styles also share issues related to control and action. Eights like to be in control and to take fast action with big impact. Nines profoundly dislike others controlling them and they control through inertia. Ones control by being both self-controlled and highly structured, and they like deliberate, quick action that enables them to check tasks off the “To-Do” lists. Here are the five most important developmental areas for each Body Center style and a simple, profound question coaches can ask clients of this style.

Key Development Desires for Eights

To know and be open to the truth from the widest perspective possible
To understand themselves and others psychologically
To feel less guilty for their own behavior and less responsible for other people
To feel strong even when feeling vulnerable or weak
To manage their vast energy without imploding or exploding

One Simple Question: What are you hiding beneath your “bigger than life” exterior?

Key Development Desires for Nines

To express themselves clearly and directly and to have greater influence and more deeply-felt authority
To have a strong, deeply held sense of personal power so that they feel fully empowered
To transform conflict into deeper and more connected relationships instead of avoiding it
To work with other people from a sense of fully understanding both themselves and others
To move from confusion to clarity and inertia to action

One Simple Question: What do you want; what would happen if you fully expressed yourself?

Key Development Desires for Ones

To be able to continuously improve themselves without feeling that they have done something wrong when they identify an area needing development
To be more consistently compassionate and attuned to others
To be less critical of themselves on such a continuous basis
To relax, have more fun, and feel more serene, especially when mistakes are made and/or things feel out of control
To structure less and go with the flow more

One Simple Question: What if you let go – of your self-control, your structure, and the other ways in which you regulate or control yourself, your life, and your work?

You can read my new Enneagram-coaching book, Bringing Out the Best in Everyone you Coach (McGraw-Hill 2009), for comprehensive and subtle coaching methods, approaches, and techniques that work best with individuals of each Enneagram style.

This is the third of a three-part series on coaching with the Enneagram.

Enneagram Theory: The Three Centers of Intelligence

2010-08-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

There is nothing so practical as a good theory.

- Kurt Lewin*

Because I have 35+ years as an OD consultant, I have lived by this quotation from Kurt Lewin.

Jerry Wagner, in his keynote address to the International Enneagram Association Conference in 2010 reminded us, with great humor, the need to question the veracity of the Enneagram theories we use: is it true, what’s the source, how do we know? And so what?

In the next series of blogs, I plan to share the key theories about the Enneagram that I most often use, why I believe they are likely true, their source as I know it (the source I give may have had another source of which I am unaware), and why they are practical. I’ll also be asking a few Enneagram teachers who are part of the Enneagram in Business Network to guest blog on their favorite theories.

I always use the following criteria before I use a theory in my work:

What is it?
Who is the source; is that source reliable?
Is it a true enough model or theory that describes some aspect of reality better than other models?
Is it practical and useful; does it help us do something we can’t do as well without it?

The Three Centers of Intelligence

What is it?

Instead of intelligence being only in the mind, we actually have three Centers of Intelligence: the Mental (Intellectual) Center, the Heart (Emotional) Center, and the Body (Physical) Center. To be whole, integrated and conscious, to be alive, awake and centered, and to be less ego-fixated and more conscious requires our being able to access all three Centers and to use all three in productive integrated ways. It is more complex than stated above – for example, the Mental Center is not just about the mind nor is the Body Center merely about body sensations and taking action – but the complexity just gives more to debate for now.

How the Centers of Intelligence relate to the Enneagram is something like a piece that helps us put together parts of the puzzle. First, three of the Enneagram styles are formed in one of the Centers: Fives, Sixes and Sevens are formed in the Mental Center; Twos, Threes and Fours are formed in the Heart Center, and Eights, Nines and Ones are formed in the Body Center. Understanding this gives us a way to group 9 styles into three sets of 3. In addition, the 3 styles within each Center share some common characteristics.

For example, the Head Center styles are three styles formed in response to the emotion of fear: Fives withdraw from fear of intrusion, Sixes try to anticipate and plan in advance for negative scenarios or go headlong against the fear (counter-phobic Sixes), and Sevens try to avoid their fear of discomfort, pain and restriction by engaging in a continuous flow of interesting ideas and novel experiences. The Heart Center styles are formed in response to sorrow (some call it shame) for not knowing or accepting who they really are and creating a substitute image: Twos create an image of being likable and thoughtful; Threes create an image of being confident and successful, and Fours create an image of being different and unique. The three Body Center styles are formed in response to the emotion of anger and also issues of control: Eights express their anger directly and try to take control by taking charge; Nines are called “anger that went to sleep,” suppressing their anger in order to not cause conflict and resist being controlled; and Ones exhibit suppressed anger – anger that emerges as flares of resentment – and assert control by being self-controlled and highly structured.

Second and equally important, since we all have all three Centers of Intelligence within us, the Enneagram can show us the way that each Enneagram style tends to use and misuse each Center of Intelligence. Thus, accurately knowing our style helps us understand how we effectively use as well as distort each of our Centers, thus paving the way for development work – perhaps it should be called “fun” and not “work” – that is specific for each style to clear up the distortions.

As just one example, Enneagram Nines, like all of us, have common distortions in each Center, distortions that are specific to their style. In their Head Center usage, Nines can collect so much information from so many perspectives that they become confused as to which information is the most relevant or important. In their Heart Center usage, Nines can be over-empathic with people with whom they have positive rapport and under-empathic with individuals they do not, in particular, people who they perceive as chronic complainers. When Nines use their Body Center, they can distort with regard to steadfastness or holding their ground. For example, Nines can become overly stubborn when they perceive another as trying to control them, but not firm enough in maintaining, expressing, and acting on their own positions and beliefs, especially when faced with opposition.

The source?

The notion of humans having three Centers of Intelligence, each of which is equally important, comes from centuries of Eastern philosophy. It is not new, though newer to those of us who live in the West who have valued mental intelligence above all else.

In addition, the work of Gurdjieff, a forefather of the modern Enneagram, focused not on personality types or distinct numbers, but on the Centers of Intelligence (as well the energies at each point, the dynamics and movements along the lines, and more). But, he perceived that awakening and balancing the Centers in each of us as central to our emerging consciousness.

In more modern times, Enneagram authors and teachers Kathy Hurley and the late Theodorre Donson focused on the importance of working with our Centers of Intelligence. Kathy and Theordorre always said they were strongly influenced by the work of Gurdjieff.

Is it true?

I do believe it is true enough, although I don’t claim to yet fully understand all of its vast implications for our growth. Why do I believe this? Gurdjieff and his followers worked with this extensively and I have great respects for his insights and knowledge. Through discussions Kathy and Theodorre as well as hearing them present on the topic of Centers and their importance to understanding the Enneagram system and types, the notion on Centers and how they are used and misused impressed me.

And from my own experience – my self-work and my extensive work with the Enneagram in organizations, I moved from “I think it’s true” to “I know it has a great deal of truth.” This is described below.

Is it practical and useful?

A resounding yes! Using the three Centers of Intelligence describes something that seems real enough, helps us identify our Enneagram styles more accurately, and helps us grow.

It seems to be reasonably accurate and very useful; most people, even if they don’t know the Enneagram, can relate to this idea: my head says one thing, my heart another, and my gut is saying something else. This seems to be part of the human experience, especially when we are confused. When I use this concept in my corporate and non-corporate programs – I use an activity in which they walk around moving from one Center to the next as a way to discover their primary Center and their lesser-used ones – almost everyone relates to the idea of having three Centers and can even locate them physically.

In teaching the Enneagram, I have learned that teaching it first by Centers and then the Enneagram types within each Center helps people grasp the system more quickly and readily. The Enneagram becomes a 3X3 system instead of a 9 number system, and this helps with absorption and retention. Thus, using the Centers of Intelligence is invaluable in teaching and identifying type. There are some Enneagram teachers who do an excellent job of grouping people by Center first, then helping them differentiate between the styles within that Center.

The Centers of Intelligence are also useful for growth. From my own experience as a Two, examining how I use, misuse, overuse, and under-use my three Centers has made a big difference in my own growth. For example, I recognized that I over-used my feeling or Heart Center, undervalued my Mental Center for many years, and was ignoring my Body Center – actually, my ignored Body Center was colluding with my Heart Center to repress my feelings. In other words, fewer physical sensations and fewer deep feelings. In still other words, if I don’t pay attention to my gut (or mind!), my heart can do whatever it want without regard to other facts I actually knew.

Also useful is how the Centers of Intelligence frame why we are working with the Enneagram and how to use the Enneagram for development. I often say this: Knowing your Enneagram style is interesting, but that is not the purpose of this work. The purpose is to gain greater access to each of your Centers of Intelligence, to use them in productive rather than non-productive ways, and use them in an integrated way, not as separate functions operating within you.

And more about Centers

I do believe there is a vast richness in working with the Centers of Intelligence that will be a source of rich learning. I’ve also learned from working with thousands of individuals that just because someone is a Head, Heart, or Body Center-based style does not mean they relate experientially to that Center as their primary Center. For example, many Threes actually report that their Heart Center is their least accessible Center; this makes sense since many Threes use their Heart function to read other people’s reactions to them, but not to feel their own feelings or to empathize with others. And many Nines report that they have most access to their Heart Center and the least to the Body Center. This also makes sense because when put your anger to sleep as Nines do – and anger resides in your gut – your Body Center as a whole may be taking a nap.

What I’ve also observed is that most people have a primary Center, a secondary Center, and one that is more dormant, but that the secondary and dormant Centers do not map exactly to specific types. For example, some Eights are Body, Heart, Mental, but other Eights may be Body, Mental, Heart. I do have a strong hunch that Enneagram subtypes play a role in this hierarchy.

Finally, some people report having equal access to all three Centers, and this is what I’ve learned from this. Some who say they have equal access to all three Centers actually have very limited access to any of them. They tend to be people who have limited experienced self-observing. And there are people I’ve met who do have almost equal access to their Centers. In most cases, there’s a reason – for example, a person who would normally have little access to the Body center but has studied martial arts for years; the person who used to not have much Heart Center access, but who experienced an emotional trauma and rather than contracting, opened up; a person whose Mental Center was not used very much, but went through a rigorous Ph.D. experience that opened up a whole new world.

The next blog will be on defense mechanisms.

*Kurt Lewin was a German-American psychologist of the early 20^th century who is considered to a pioneer of modern social, organization, and applied psychology. Even more, force-field analysis, action research, and change theory all bear his name. Beyond this, National Training Laboratories (NTL) and the field of organization development (OD) owe their origins to Lewin and his work.

The EQUINE ENNEAGRAM…it’s not about the HORSE

2010-07-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

A Guest Blog by Jane Strong

Part 2: Enneagram Head Center Style Six

Last year, I was at a ranch in Montana with two other Equine Experiential Learning Coaches. We were doing a workshop with six senior executives from New York, one of whom was a stern-looking man named Adler who was about 6’3” and had a very strong German accent. He told me that he had trouble getting his employees to open up and often felt uncomfortable in large groups. He described himself as shy and chose the image of a shrinking violet to portray how he felt on the inside. Hmmmm… I began to sense that he was a counter-phobic SIX because his own sense of himself was about 180-degrees apart from what he conveyed to us.   After several rounds of discussion around the topic of his demeanor and what he might be “putting out there” to his teams, we asked him to choose a horse to work with in the round pen. He picked Crackers, a retired champion who still had plenty of athletic ability.

Adler had no prior experience with horses, so I offered to accompany him into the round pen – a sixty-foot diameter pen where both horses and humans are free to move. He wanted to go in alone with the horse, so we asked him to stand in the center and get the horse to move forward. After giving us an uncertain look, Adler proceeded to make himself as big as he could, raised his arms and shouted, “MOVE!”. Crackers immediately took off in a panicky gallop around the perimeter of the pen…trying as best he could to get away. This was clearly the tactic of a counter-phobic SIX – compensating for his fear with frightening aggression.

When we suggested he ask Crackers to slow down, he yelled, “SLOW DOWN!!” in his booming voice, which only made matters worse. Crackers instantly went into fifth gear. I thought to myself, “No wonder he can’t gain the trust of his team or engage people in group…. nothing like fear coupled with aggression to make everyone want to run.”
Adler was at a total loss, and willing to listen to anyone, so I coached him to drop his shoulders, take some deep breaths into his whole body and feel the ground under his feet. To his amazement, every time he took a breath and lowered the “volume” of energy he was putting out to Crackers, the horse slowed down a bit and even turned his head to look at Adler, indicating that he was beginning to relax and wanted to make a connection.   And every time he saw this, Adler gained more real experience of (and reward for) softening his energy and diminishing his aggression.

Then, I asked him to rock back on his heels, soften his chest and let out a sigh. The moment he did this, it looked like his whole body was filling in with color and Crackers slowed to a trot, then a walk. Finally, he turned his sleek body into the center and rested his head on Adler’s shoulder. Needless to say, this powerful man was both astonished and deeply moved.   He told me later in a very soft voice, “I had no idea how I was coming across…and you could never have told me how to change what I didn’t know I was doing. This is a very big thing for me.”

When I coached him using the Enneagram, Adler began to understand much more about why he was behaving this way and was able to integrate his experience with Crackers a deep insight into the underlying motivations of counter-phobic behavior. Seven months later in New York, he said he was still amazed by his experience with Crackers and how well it fit with the Enneagram. He told me that his team members come in and sit on his desk now, because he asks how they feel about issues at hand (and in their own lives) before getting into what they think or what they might do about a situation. He uses his keen mind and perception to find out what’s going on directly, rather than making assumptions based on expecting the worst all the time. “I’m still aware of the fear in me, but because I feel it more directly in my own self, I’m not so inclined to assume it’s coming from something outside”.
Obviously, when change occurs through the body, mind and heart, we don’t easily forget.

This is the second of four blogs on The Equine Enneagram by Jane Strong. An Enneagram teacher, business consultant, coach, and Senior Member of the Enneagram in Business Network, Jane is the pioneer in the field of the “Equine Enneagram.” An Equine Learning Instructor since the early 2000s, Jane combines her Enneagram expertise and her work with horses to accelerate her client’s growth, transformation, presence, and leadership skills. Jane can be reached at jane@equineenneagram.com.

The next Equine Enneagram blog explains how to work with Enneagram Heart Center style Three.

The EQUINE ENNEAGRAM…it’s not about the HORSE

2010-07-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

A Guest Blog by Jane Strong

Part 1: Equine Enneagram Overview
I’ve been studying the Enneagram since 1994 and using it in my work as a facilitator and coach since 2004. I’ve also been studying natural horsemanship since 2003 with several “Horse Whisperers” who have changed the way I understand and relate to horses. Horses had been a part of my life growing up, but I never understood how they see the world and what they can do for our own self-awareness until I met a woman named Linda Kohanov in Tucson.   Her books and trainings focus entirely on what horses can do for us rather than we can do with them. It was in one of her workshops that I realized I could “see” which Centers of Intelligence – Head, Heart, or Body – were blocked among my fellow students and which were most open.   Needless to say, my SEVEN mind went to work right away imagining ways I could combine these seemingly disparate worlds, and it didn’t take me long to develop several simple style-appropriate exercises designed to help my clients gain access to their repressed centers.   No prior experience with horses is necessary. In fact, the less my clients think they know about horses, the less there is to UN-learn.

Why horses? Well, as non-predatory animals who live in herds, their survival depends on being able to read and interpret the intentions of anyone around them. They can actually sense your heart rate, muscle tension and the depth of your breathing from 30 feet away. Why? In nature, a predator who makes a mistake misses a meal. If a horse makes a mistake, he’s dinner. These instinctive responses haven’t left the species at all, despite the fact that they rarely face this kind of mortal danger at the barn. In addition, they have 340-degree vision, 140-degree range with their ears and can sense any kind of change in their surroundings through each other. Linda calls this socio-sensual awareness. It’s the same as when we “feel” the change in a room when someone gets angry or upset. We just don’t talk about it very often. Horses on the other hand, act exactly the way they feel. They reveal to my clients the instant they’re being congruent and effective by how they respond.

They also teach us that we have much more control over what we “put out” through our heads, hearts and bodies than we think. The moment we shift our attention, they do.   They’re kind of like SIXES…always scanning for danger and questioning authority. They seem to love engaging with us, however, and have a great deal of patience as we struggle to get clear in communicating exactly what we want from them. Coupled with the Enneagram, clients get both a somatic experience of how s/he comes across to others, as well as some powerful insights into the underlying motivations that keep habitual patterns in place.

For example, it’s often apparent to HEAD STYLES Five, Six, and Seven that they have a hard time getting into their bodies to reinforce what they want.   It then becomes obvious what we need to do to bring their energy and intention into their hearts and bodies to make a horse move forward, draw him closer or set a boundary.

For HEART STYLES Two, Three, and Four, exercises usually focus on teaching clients to be aware of their own emotions and to let go of their image-based defenses and just be with the horses. (We promise to give them back after our sessions and workshops.) Twos, Threes, and Fours are usually amazed at how much awareness and control they really do have over their own responses.

For BODY STYLES Eight, Nine, and One, we teach them to modulate the energy they put out through their gut centers and allow the process to unfold. Obviously, NINES need to focus and direct their intentions with clarity. EIGHTS need to modulate their intensity, and ONES need to relax and let go of their need to display competency and control…to simply be with the horse…easier said than done.

Adding horses to the mix not only accelerates the process of discovering and moving beyond barriers to more effective communication, teamwork and leadership, but they’re also masterful at teaching us how to set healthy boundaries. We learn to use something my friend Penny calls “minimum essential pressure”…big news for EIGHTS! And, as many of us have discovered, “How we do one thing is how we do everything.”

As one executive reported to me after working with my big quarter horse named Black Jack, “This is like having my own biofeedback machine. I get an instant response to how I come across, and what happens when I change, just by watching this horse.”

This is the first of four blogs on The Equine Enneagram by Jane Strong. An Enneagram teacher, business consultant, coach, and Senior Member of the Enneagram in Business Network, Jane is pioneering the field of the “Equine Enneagram.” An Equine Learning Instructor since the early 2000s, Jane combines her Enneagram expertise and her work with horses to accelerate her client’s growth, transformation, presence, and leadership skills. Jane can be reached at jane@equineenneagram.com.

The next Equine Enneagram blog explains how to work with Head Center style Six.

The EQUINE ENNEAGRAM…it’s not about the HORSE

2010-07-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

A Guest Blog by Jane Strong

Part 3: Enneagram Heart Center Style Three

I recently had a session with one of my favorite horses and one of my favorite people named Val…a powerhouse of a THREE who knows the Enneagram and herself very well. While she’d never been this “close” to a horse except for a couple of trail rides as a kid, she’s used the Enneagram in her consulting business for several years. Perfect for this work.

When I introduced Val to Dutch Boy Paint, my Arab-Pinto gelding, I noticed something different about her, but wasn’t sure what it was. I knew it would reveal itself soon enough. So, I asked her if she was up for the challenge of getting Dutch to pick up his hoof. She thought it wouldn’t be easy but seemed very willing to try. “Just make your intentions very clear and ask for it,” I said. Much to my surprise, she did – and he did – on the first try.

Val said later, “I’d never been around horses, so it was incredible to me that I could be so connected and feel so powerful with Dutch just by being congruent.” I told her that sometimes, we wait for 15 minutes while clients get clear about what they want and Dutch yields one of his hoofs. For horses their hooves are their first line of defense…when in doubt…RUN!

So, we went outside and I asked her to put all of her energy and attention into her Head Center and take Dutch for a walk. She took the lead rope and he complied, but I noticed that his head was turned slightly away from her…as if they really weren’t together. She said as she circled back around to me that this felt familiar and often “where she is” when she deals with so many things at once.   She told me that this was very familiar territory for her but she’d never “seen” how disconnected it really is.

Then, I asked her to take a deep breath, put her attention into her Heart Center and take him for another stroll. As they went, I could see him come closer, lower his head and turn it toward her shoulder. When she returned, she said, “I’d been doing a lot work on myself lately in terms of getting into my body…and the second I went from my head to my heart, he was nuzzling my shoulder. Before this, I never had any evidence that moving my energy from one center to another would have such a striking influence on another being.” I thought to myself that this was what I had noticed about Val. She was more in her body and more honest about her own concerns than I’d ever seen before.

Next, I asked Val to let her energy rest in her Body Center. She did, and moved out into the arena with Dutch in tow. He went with her, but tested her leadership all the way…as if to say, “Are you sure, are you sure?” That’s Dutch. She stayed focused on the task, but noticed that it wasn’t as rewarding as when she’d been in her heart. According to Val, this exercise made it quite clear that accomplishing something by making it happen is also familiar territory for her but that it felt like a hollow victory.

Finally, I suggested that she move her awareness to all three centers and just be mindful of them all as they went one final round.   When she came back this time, she was radiant as she told me, “As a THREE, I’m used to spending a lot of my energy and attention on making sure that things happen. Now I can see how much more powerful and easy it is to get something done by being mindful of my energy and staying congruent.”

Val is extremely adept in her verbal skills and getting lots of things done, so it was delightful to watch her trust the process and be open to experimenting with Dutch. She had a firsthand experience of the awareness and control she really does have by being more aware and congruent. She loved the power she experienced by really inhabiting her own body. “I feel so validated with the feedback from Dutch. And you just reinforced it by adding to my awareness of what was happening. I’ve experienced immediate feedback but this was instantaneous!” The impact and choices we really have are amazingly clear to me now.”

Because of Val's knowledge of the Enneagram and personal interest in development, she was able to make an immediate connection between what she experienced at the barn and some habitual patterns of behavior that she can now change in the larger “arenas” of her life.

As you can read in the above story, once it becomes obvious where the work lies for each client, I create simple ground exercises designed specifically to reveal and help that person move beyond his or her barriers. Coupled with the Enneagram, clients get both a somatic experience of how s/he comes across to others, as well as some powerful insights into the underlying motivations that keep habitual patterns in place.

This is the third of four blogs on The Equine Enneagram by Jane Strong.

An Enneagram teacher, business consultant, coach, and Senior Member of the Enneagram in Business Network, Jane is the pioneer in the field of the “Equine Enneagram.” An Equine Learning Instructor since the early 2000s, Jane combines her Enneagram expertise and her work with horses to accelerate her client’s growth, transformation, presence, and leadership skills. Jane can be reached at jane@equineenneagram.com.

The next Equine Enneagram blog explains how to work with Enneagram Body Center style Nine.

The EQUINE ENNEAGRAM…it’s not about the HORSE

2010-07-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

A Guest Blog by Jane Strong

Part 4: Enneagram Body Center Style Nine

This story is about a NINE named Rob, who loved his new black quarter horse more than anyone I know. His equine companion named Orient loved him, too. He came running from the pasture when Rob whistled and didn’t hesitate to join him of his own free will when he walked to the barn. The problem was, Rob could hardly keep this gentle giant from walking right over him. Most horses have no idea how big they are or how small we are in comparison. They still think they’re still 40-pound quadrupeds who have to watch out for low-flying pterodactyls on the hunt. We have to teach them to respect our boundaries as much as we have to respect theirs when they’re eating, or when we approach them for affection, or ask them to engage with us.

So while Rob was happy to spend time with Orient, it was clear to me that he couldn’t raise or focus the energy in his body center enough to get this horse to keep out of his way. When I asked him how he’d describe the issue, he said, “Well, I like him so much. I hate to push him away and make him disconnect from me.” I asked him if he felt that asking for distance and respect was unkind and he said, “Yes, I guess I do.”

Obviously, Rob shared the same problem that many NINES have. Creating space for themselves implies disconnecting, and this feels like conflict. As we know, NINES can also believe that if they take a stand, it may cost the relationship. And, as the rest of us know, that’s EXACTLY what we need them to do in order for us to know and respect them as individuals.

So, the first thing I showed Rob was a bunch of other horses in the field. They pushed and shoved, kicked up their heels and sometimes nipped at their pasture mates to gain control over their space and let each other “know” who they were. No hard feelings, just space. When I asked Rob what he saw, he told me he was amazed at how rough they could be and still come back for more. “Interesting,” he said. “I’m really surprised they’re so resilient.”
So, we went into the round pen, and I asked Rob to focus his attention on the place about two inches below his belt and two inches in, the center of the body center. Then, I suggested that he feel his feet and visualize a laser beam coming out of that place. I told him he needed to put all of his energy there and direct it out toward Orient’s hind end. I told him he could scuff the ground or use his arms to emphasize this gesture.

Rob looked perplexed and somewhat concerned about this request, as this kind of energy was both unfamiliar and not easy to access. He didn’t like the idea of taking a threatening stance toward this horse he liked so much. On top of that, he said it was exhausting for him to focus his energy as I had requested, but he tried. It was clear to me that Orient wasn’t “buying” Rob’s first attempt, because he just stood right next to Rob looking for a peppermint in his pocket.

“OK. Step away from Orient, using this rope as an extension of your arm as you direct all of the energy from that point in your body toward his hind end. Just toss the rope out onto the ground. It won’t hurt him.” It was hard for Rob to accept the concept of minimum essential pressure. We start slow and keep ‘upping the ante’ if we don’t get what we want. It took a lot reassurance from me to convey that boundaries are not enemy lines and that both should take a request from Rob to Orient seriously.

This time, Rob had clearly made an effort to focus his energy and used the rope for emphasis. He was a bit awkward, but Orient got the point and moved away toward the perimeter of the pen. I asked Rob to keep his energy up and to kick up some dirt with the toe of his boot. He did, and Orient moved faster. Clearly, Rob himself was getting a kick out of this newfound connection to clarity in his body. I told him that he didn’t have to lose his connection to his heart. He smiled and kept on pushing Orient forward with his laser beam, grounded energy. He then dropped the rope and continued to “push” with his body. Orient slowed down for a moment, and then felt the pressure from Rob himself to keep going. Rob kept up his “experiment” and played with the volume and direction of his energy as he watched the impact on his horse.

Then, the moment Rob softened the focus and intensity of his energy, Orient slowed down. As he continued to do this, the horse came to a walk and looked toward the center, and lowered his head. “See Rob? He’s not angry with you at all…just asking if he can stop working now. When you’re ready for that, lower your eyes and let him come to you.” Orient came to the center and stood right next to Rob as soon as he was ‘invited.’ “He ‘s not angry and isn’t all over me either,” Rob said. “This is what respect looks like,” I replied.

When we did some work with the Enneagram, Rob began to understand why as a NINE, he had trouble setting boundaries and making his wishes known. He experienced first hand how to stay CONNECTED to another WHILE standing up for what he wanted. Over time, he also came to learn that both Orient AND the significant others in his life, were more respectful and attracted to him when they knew where he stood. Bravo, Rob!

This is the last of four blogs on The Equine Enneagram by Jane Strong.

An Enneagram teacher, business consultant, coach, and Senior Member of the Enneagram in Business Network, Jane is the pioneer in the field of the “Equine Enneagram.” An Equine Learning Instructor since the early 2000s, Jane combines her Enneagram expertise and her work with horses to accelerate her client’s growth, transformation, presence, and leadership skills. Jane can be reached at jane@equineenneagram.com.

Famous Nines: Sandra Bullock and the Dalai Lama

2010-08-13T14:32:00.000-07:00

WORLDVIEW: Everyone deserves to be respected and heard: I must enable this.

NINES seek peace, harmony, and positive mutual regard, and dislike conflict, tension, and ill will.

Relaxed, easy to relate to, and accepting, Nines see and honor multiple viewpoints and are usually excellent facilitators, drawing out the ideas of others so everyone gets heard. While they value harmony, seek comfortable ways of relating, and are often adept mediators of conflict between and among others, most Nines are extremely uncomfortable with conflict when it’s directed toward them and even more uncomfortable when they feel angry with someone else. As a result, Nines keep themselves from doing anything that might generate conflict or create disharmony – for example, not being aware when they are upset, not expressing opinions or preferences that could cause discord or disagreements, and diffusing their attention by engaging in activities that comfort them rather than focus them on their own desires or priorities. As examples, Nines may do some of the following: watch television for hours, flipping channels on a regular basis; cut the grass or garden when they have projects at work or home they should be doing; go shopping, walk the dog, or even do the dishes in an overly thorough way rather than have a difficult conversation with someone.

While Nines appear easygoing on the outside, many experience a high degree of internal tension, and they are not always as non-judgmental as they appear. In addition, some Nines tend to satisfy their desire for comfort through the satisfaction of their physical needs – for example, eating, sleeping, and/or reading; some Nines submerge themselves in service of group needs by working extraordinary hours, which allows them to forget about their own desires; and other Nines find comfort in fusing or blending almost completely with others who are important to them.

In the following YouTube segments, you will see short clips of two famous Nines: the actress Sandra Bullock and the Dalai Lama. These clips are excellent examples of the Nines’ interpersonal style. Agreeable and relatively unassertive, the Nine interpersonal style is non-intrusive but engaged, open and affable, and they often express themselves indirectly rather than boldly and directly.

Remember: While we can all prefer rapport and ease to discord, for Nines, the pursuit of harmony and comfort and the avoidance conflict is their primary, persistent, and driving motivation.

Sandra Bullock - Click here to see clip

In this interview with David Letterman, watch Bullock’s friendly and non-invasive interpersonal style, particularly the way she nods her head or says “yes” and laughs, as well as the timing of these behaviors. Letterman even describes her as “the kind of person who makes you feel better.”

Dalai Lama - Click here to see clip

Listen to the Dalai Lama discuss his views of conflict and human nature, notice his relaxing tone of voice, and watch how he creates rapport with the audience.

This is the last blog on the communication styles of the nine different Enneagram styles.

Claudio Naranjo’s Subtypes Program: Part 2 – Content

2010-07-22T11:00:00.000-07:00

First, a disclaimer! In this second blog on my experience with Claudio Naranjo at the 27 Enneagram Subtypes program in Todtmoos, Germany, there is no way to cover what he taught in the 7 days. The content was extremely complex and nuanced, plus understanding what was taught requires some context on the types, the passions and fixations of type, etc. that are beyond the scope and length of a blog. But I will try to highlight some of the content.

About the Subtypes

There are 27 characters in the Enneagram, not just nine, because each of the nine styles can be divided into three different subtypes: Self-preservation, Social, and Sexual (or One-to-One). The subtype is the particular way in which the passion of the type (emotional automatic response pattern or driver of the type) mixes with one of the three instinctual needs (Self-Preservation, Social, Sexual). Claudio went into depth about the passions for each style, then discussed and did panel interviews (more or less) with individuals of each subtype (where this was possible due to both numbers of people willing to be up on stage in front of 180 people and the time available).

Why Learn about the Subtypes

There are many reasons, and here are a few:

To find yourself accurately on the Enneagram and to not mistype yourself as another type
To be able to know yourself in far greater depth so you can better work on reducing the ego’s grip
To understand the particular way the passion of our type functions and drives our behavior
To grow, develop, and transform at a faster rate (it’s never fast, but it is much slower when we have our type and/or subtype wrong)

Do We Have Only One Subtype?

Claudio would say yes and no. What he actually said is that one of the three subtypes is generally dormant throughout our life (that is, it is the instinctual area in which we hardly pay attention to our needs), and two of them are more activated (although the subtype behavior is a neurotic way of getting our needs met in these areas). With the two activated subtypes, one is dominant, although when we were younger, the other activated subtype may have been more dominant than the one we manifest as we get older.

This becomes very interesting. We could be a (1) Sexual/Social; (2) Sexual/Self-Preservation; (3) Social/Sexual; (4) Social/Self-Preservation; (5) Self-Preservation/Sexual; or (6) Self-Preservation/Social. Thinking about it, there are really 27 subtypes, but there 162 variations (27x6). It was very clear to me there that the Social 2s were very different depending on whether their 2^nd subtype was Sexual or Self-Preservation.

The question never arose about whether we all have a sub-dominant subtype as well as a dominant one. For example, could someone be only a Self-Preservation subtype without having another subtype lurking in the background as a secondary subtype. This is something worth pondering!

Subtypes and Counter-Types

Claudio focused more on the counter-types (the subtype that thwarts the full expression of the passion for the type) than the other two subtypes. For every Enneagram style, two subtypes go with the flow of the passion; one goes against the flow. I believe he focused on counter-types because the counter-types are the subtypes that get most confused with another type. In addition, we could learn how the passion of the type appears in its less obvious version. Here’s an example. The countertype for 6 is the Sexual Subtype, the counter-phobic 6. They do not look afraid and appear to have courage, yet their energetic drive is fear-based, even if many of them are unaware of it. Called Strength/Beauty by Ichazo, they appear fearless using their appearance of strength (as in, “I can take anything on.”) to convince themselves primarily and others secondarily that they are afraid of nothing. Counter-phobic 6s can appear like 8s, but the drive is fear, not anger (even though counter-phobic 6s can appear angry, though not all do). Claudio describes these 6s as always “having their pistols drawn,” and developmentally, they need to learn to put their pistols (a metaphor for being “armed”) down. 8s, by contrast, do not have their pistols drawn at all times for there is no need to do so. They have other ways to make themselves appear big and powerful and their need is for power and offense, not strength for defense.

Subtypes and Centers

Claudio did not talk about the Centers of Intelligence directly, but did make a passing comment that you can go through the three subtypes for each type and make a matrix regarding how they use of intellect, emotion, and action. So while he did not say “Centers,” these are the Centers: Head, Heart, and Body. He did not go into any more detail than what I include here about 7s, but I plan to map these for all nine styles. Self-Preservation 7: intellect/emotion; Social 7: intellect/action; Sexual 7: intellect/intellect.

Subtypes and Wings

Claudio did not talk about wings at all except to debunk something that I had never heard before. In only a few minutes, he said that someone is teaching that subtype can be determined if you know the person’s wings and said that this is not true. He never mentioned the person’s name or any more about wings. I did not get the impression one way or the other what he believes about the wings.

Subtypes and Arrows

Claudio did mention the arrows many times. The most common way he mentioned it was that behind each Enneagram style lurks the core issue of the Enneagram type (arrow) that points toward that number (known also as the security point, though Claudio never referred to it as such). Under a 2 lurks the angry 4 who can never be satisfied with what they have. Under a 4 lurks the perfectionistic 1 who is never satisfied with reality as it is and so forth. I would list them all, but he didn’t review them, only made reference to them, so this is another area I want to get closer to the truth.

Claudio also referred to both arrows pointing to a type as a reflection of the inner conflict of the type, one that the type is wrestling with. For example, the 3 tries to resolve the anxiety/fear and need for certainty of the 6 with the indolence (not knowing or being awake to who one is) of the 9 at Enneagram style 3 (resolution for better or worse, it seems, but that wasn’t clear). The idea is that 3s appear certain, hiding anxiety for the most part and do not appear lazy since they are “doers.” Yet, they do still experience anxiety and are certainly lazy in terms of not knowing who they are and substituting “doing” for “being.” Again, not complete review of this, so here’s another area of pursuit.

Type: Nature or Nurture?

Claudio never explicitly said whether he believes Enneagram type is the product of nature, nurture, or a combination. But he did say this: temperament is not the same as “character” and that we are born with a certain temperament. ”Character” appears later and while there is an associative relationship between the two, specific temperaments in infants do not map exactly to specific “characters” (Enneagram types). He also said that the passion (emotional response pattern of the type) appears at about age 4, while the fixation (false mental assumptions of the type) appear at about age 7-8. Before then, the cognitive development of the child is insufficiently developed to articulate such a thing (reference to the work of Piaget).

Subtypes and Development

According to Claudio, subtype does matter for development. He gave the example of 6s in terms of what each of the subtypes must come to terms with or give up to lessen the ego’s hold. Sexual subtype 6s must let go of their “pistols” (disarm themselves as a way of defending against the fear); Social 6s must let go a needing to know and live by the rules (so nothing bad happens to them); and Self-Preservation 6s must let go of their deep distrust (fear and doubt) in themselves. Again, Claudio went over some of these for each type, but not all.

Summary

I hope I am doing justice to what was said, as I wrote this without reviewing my notes as a way to assess how much I had internalized. Many questions were answered there, and many new ones arose. My experience of Claudio there is that while he knows this material better than anyone, he is still learning and exploring. No wonder it is so hard for anyone to write an accurate and comprehensive book about subtypes. Just when you think you have it, something new emerges.

The 2^nd of three blogs on the 27 Enneagram Subtypes with Claudio Naranjo

Claudio Naranjo’s Subtypes Program: Part 3 – My Personal Experience

2010-07-23T11:00:00.000-07:00

When I decided to go to Germany to Claudio’s 27 Enneagram Subtypes program, I had thought about attending from many perspectives, but made the choice because my heart got very excited about the idea. And I had not felt so excited in a long time. From there, my mind kicked in to ask: So what do you want from the experience? I made a list in my mind, and interestingly, some of the items had nothing (or so I thought) to do with the Enneagram. In addition, I gained great insight about several areas (an implicit list) that had been in the back of my mind, but had not made the official mental list.

My Official List

To be with Claudio for 7 days
To learn more about the subtypes, including confirming what I did know, correcting what I had wrong, and expanding my perspective on this topic
To recover some of my Romanian ancestry
To learn why my son’s 20 year-old friend and longtime family friend had been recently killed under suspicious circumstances

My Experience: The Official List

To be with Claudio for 7 days

This was easy to satisfy since he was there every day, was extremely present to the many people there, and I had some personal interactions with him that meant a great deal to me. For example, I reintroduced myself to him early on, and he didn’t recognize me at first. The story I told myself was that this was the result of my hair being its natural gray instead of its dyed color from 2004, but the truth was he didn’t recognize me, and this was not only OK, it was good. When I told him my name, he apologized for not having responded to a few emails I had sent, which I told him (and meant) that this was also OK. I really loved the 7 days and relaxed about not really having any connections with anyone in particular, just blending into the crowd more or less. Later in the week, we had some interactions in the large group – initiated by him – that were amusing and lovely. But a more important interaction occurred at the end of the program, which is described later in this blog.

To learn more about the subtypes, including confirming what I did know, correcting what I had wrong, and expanding my perspective on this topic

This was easy to satisfy. I had a lot of accurate information and understanding, some inaccuracy, and a whole lot new.

To recover some of my Romanian ancestry

My mother’s side was Romanian, but I knew nothing about Romania. From the pre-participant email, there were two Romanians listed. How would I find them from 180 people? They – Daniela and Radu – found me because Daniela saw my name on the list, checked out my website, and found me the first day. The three of us spent a great deal of precious time together talking about everything. In terms of my roots, they were able to tell me with some certainty that my ancestors were from Transylvania and had likely moved there from Germany. They even gave me a book in English with pictures of the various sub-entities that make up all of Romania. Daniela is a self-preservation subtype Four and Radu is a social subtype Three, both somewhat new to the Enneagram and very intricate, sensitive people. I was able to help them some with the nuances of the Enneagram; they were able to provide me with a wealth of knowledge and sense of the Romanian culture and history.

To learn why my son’s 20 year-old friend and longtime family friend (Jamie) had been recently killed under suspicious circumstances

So I am sitting on the lawn during the lunch hour and Carmen appears, sits, and we talk. An astrologer and acupuncturist from Berlin, she is also a psychic. I tell her Jamie’s story and his birth date (an Aries), she explains that there are really only 6 signs, that the zodiac is a medallion with 6 signs on one side and their opposites on the other side – in this case, Aries and Libra. Pluto was transiting Aries/Libra during this period, creating great amounts of turmoil and upheaval externally. Any Aries or Libras who had large, unresolved inner turmoil were at risk during this period, and depending on other factors, POW! Carmen later mentioned that she chose to come to me some time in the morning, knowing the time would present itself. I am an Aries as is my son, so this really pierced my sense of being.

My Experience: The Unofficial List

Equally important were some answers to questions I had wondered about for a long time. The first was why, given the types and degrees of abuse I experienced during childhood, had I not become disturbed or even a multiple personality. Having seen a few documentaries on individuals who are multiples, I would always say, “Oh, that happened to me, too.” The second question was why my deceased brother Stevie, also a social Two, seemed so arrogant in an engaging way (the passion of Pride), but my version of Pride was far more muted, harder to see in many ways.

Given my family background, how did I escape becoming a multiple personality?

To make a long story short, the social subtype Twos were discussing our family backgrounds. Literally, one side of the table had social Twos who were treated liked special people for their entire lives (my brother!) with complete love from both parents and expectations they were able to meet. On the other side were social Twos who were born as special children, but then very painful things happened to them. I was last to talk, told my story, then said it was a wonder I had not become a multiple personality. The woman next to me, who had just joined the group after trying to find herself in several others said, “I have found my home.”

The next day she came up to me, told me she had a very similar background to mine, had been a multiple personality until 20 years earlier and had subsequently put herself back together, now serving as a therapist for individuals with the same diagnosis. By this time, another women had joined us (the first was German, the second Swiss) and I asked, “Why did you become a multiple and not me?” Their answer was clear: resilience. This is a psychological term for individuals who, in spite of severe hardship, come back from such things even stronger. It apparently comes from one of several factors; (1) having one person who believes in you and with whom you bond (I had a maid, Alice, who did this); (2) a religious belief that holds you together (not me at the time); and/or (3) something that anchors you, a symbol or object. There was a ring my mother had but never wore that was very beautiful and I used to put it on and pretend (thought it felt real at the time) that I was a real princess on a magic carpet in a beautiful land where everything was good.

So my question was answered. These women just appeared! Or did they?

How can two social subtype Twos from the same family appear to be so different?

As mentioned above, in a family where each of his siblings suffered, he did not. In fact, some of our suffering was because we were somehow “not as good” as he was, just by virtue of not being him. He would even refer to himself as “Stevie the Great.”

The other difference was secondary subtype. Although he was a social Two, his secondary subtype was self-preservation. These Twos act more like children, privileged and exacting the care of others; they are willing to sacrifice the rights of adulthood for the privileges of childhood. So he had this entitlement combined with a sense of bigness. I am a social Two with the sexual subtype as my secondary. I focus more on balancing doing or being something big with a desire to give – and be important – to my partners, friends, and specific family members.

My Final Experience with Claudio

The final activity of the week was a Gestalt Awareness continuum exercise in trios. As a trained Gestalt therapist, I love this activity and do it all the time. But this time, I was totally bored. It took me 4 minutes to “get” that this was the case, and after I said “Now, I feel totally bored,” I felt very alive. I realized I had been hiding the truth from myself. I didn’t want to know it. Not OK to be bored when I am supposed to be liking something or someone.

Claudio had said multiple times that progress occurs when you are in touch with your truest instincts and desires. I had a desire to give Claudio a hug, so I went up to him and said so. We hugged; I felt close to nothing. Instead of ignoring my reaction or wondering why it was not satisfying – was it me, him, blah, blah, blah – I thought, “Maybe it wasn’t a hug I really wanted!” Then it came to me. What I really wanted was to tell him how much he meant to me. After the program ended, he was by himself, I walked toward him and said, “I realized it wasn’t a hug I wanted; it was to tell you how much you mean to me.” Wow, I felt full of feeling and totally satisfied. Claudio, being Claudio, said, “Ah, that is so much nicer.” And then he gave me a hug.

The 3^rd of three blogs on the 27 Enneagram Subtypes with Claudio Naranjo

Claudio Naranjo’s Enneagram Subtypes Program: Part 1 – Structure

2010-07-21T16:20:00.000-07:00

In mid-July, I had the opportunity to spend 7 days with Claudio Naranjo in the Black Forest (Todtmoos, to be exact); it was all about the 27 Enneagram subtypes. This is the first of several blogs about that complex, exhausting, and enlightening experience through which I hope to share that experience. This 1st blog will cover the structure of the program and some of my reactions to it. The 2nd blog reviews the program content, while the 3rd blog describes my personal experiences there.

Environment
Todtmoos is a small village situated in the Black Forest and contains one small, famous German church, many hotels (most of which have restaurants within), tall trees, and not too much more. People come there to be in nature and to hike. Then, 180 of us, mostly Germans, descended for 7 days. There were also participants from other European countries, plus a few scattered individuals from far away (like me, from the US).

Morning
The daily program went from 8:30 in the morning until 10:00 at night, with lunch and dinner breaks and a few other breaks (which they call “pauses,” not breaks). Mornings were a Claudio-led meditation, a different version each day, followed by subtype information and panels of people of that subtype. The meditations were wonderful; Claudio leads them in a non-hypnotic way. His explanations of the subtypes were clear, nuanced, highly informative, and his panel facilitation was superb: astute, witty, and informative. Mostly, he focused on the counter-types of each type, the subtype that moves away from (in a sense, withholds) some of the energy of the passion. Even with 7 full days, everyone thought there was material enough for a month and many things were left uncovered. I was very content with all this; there seems to be an endless array of subtype information, so if we had a month, I think we’d say we needed three months. Claudio, by the way, seemed really relaxed, with whiter hair and a shorter beard than when I saw him last in 2004.

Afternoon
Early afternoon was physical movement, which his assistants led and which I thought were only OK. Mostly, we danced naturally (or unnaturally!) to music, starting slow, then building to a high rate of energy. I thought about using the word frenzy, as that is what it often seemed to me, though I wondered if I would have thought that if I were 24 instead of 64. Mostly I left these sessions early to talk with people or just relax. In the late afternoons, we often did an activity or Claudio might do something. For example, we got to explore how we use each of the passions or fixations that go with the 9 types. Message: We all do all these things some times! It was a great exercise. One afternoon, Claudio played the piano demonstrating the 9 styles through classical musicians. Although I had seen this program in Santa Monica in 2003, there was something about his presentation this time that was more pure, more sweet, more joyful. I could have listened for hours. Many there experienced it as a highlight of the 7 days.

Evening
The evenings were filled with type and subtype groups or with film clips showing the subtypes in action. The subtype groups were enlightening, or at least mine was. I was with the Social Subtype Twos, and we got to write our joint biography and discuss how we are in love, work, and life. The similarities were daunting, and I gained many new insights. These were a WOW. The evenings devoted to film were too slow for me, and I had seen many of them before. I must admit I left early some nights, only to find that I had made a good choice to do so (based on reports of others the next morning). On these nights, I got to bed later than ever, having some wonderful conversations with people who also left early.

And all of the above was happening in 5 languages: English, German, Italian, French, and Spanish. Claudio spoke, for the most part, in English, with a German translator on stage and the other languages being translated through earphones. This program was one of the few he has done that is open to the public (meaning participants other than SAT students) as well as one of the few he has done in English in the past several years. I heard that he will not be doing any more of these (through the grapevine from one of his assistants), but don’t know this for sure. In all, it was full and rich, leaving many wanting more.

The 1st of three blogs on the 27 Enneagram Subtypes with Claudio Naranjo

Enneagram Styles and Discernment

2010-08-01T12:10:00.000-07:00

This blog was inspired by Ruth Landis’s insights about Discernment, “the ability to judge well.” The emphasis here is on well, not judge! You can read about how each of us, based on our Enneagram styles, can allow more Discernment in our lives. Ruth Landis is a Senior Member of the Enneagram in Business Network at TheEnneagramInBusiness.com.

We discern through observation and slowing down enough to see what choices we have available to us in each moment, rather that responding automatically and habitually. Today, try slowing down and experiment playing with your attention like you might with a camera lens, moving from close-up to medium shot to long shot. What more information have you gathered about any given moment by playing with your personal lens? Try making one decision today based on this kind of expanded information.

Discernment and Enneagram Styles
I’ve added the following to help us understand how our Enneagram styles can block our Discernment capabilities and how we can allow ourselves to be more fully in a state of discerning, being able to differentiate what actually exists from what we want or believe to be true.

Enneagram Style One
Obstacle to Discernment: Paying so much attention to errors and mistakes that you run the risk of being over-discerning
How to allow Discernment: Acknowledge and accept reality as it is, understanding that there is an intrinsic perfection, even in that which is flawed

Enneagram Style Two
Obstacle to Discernment: Believing that there is so much potential and abundance in everyone and everything (including you) that you minimize difficulties, limitations, and shortcomings (especially your own)
How to allow Discernment: Fully acknowledge what you actually know to be true about people and situations without suppressing or repressing your true reactions and responses

Enneagram Style Three
Obstacle to Discernment: Creating such a positive “spin” on how you want to be perceived and what you’ve accomplished that you don’t recognize important information that is already there
How to allow Discernment: First, acknowledge fully who you are aside from what you do – thus, being self-discerning; then, acknowledge all of your insights, even those that do not put you or others in a positive light

Enneagram Style Four
Obstacle to Discernment: Paying attention to what is missing rather than all that is present, then confusing your emotional reactions with what is actually true in a larger and more objective understanding of reality

How to allow Discernment: Create a positive sorting filter that allows you to internalize truthful and positive comments, reactions, and experiences that come from external sources: then, create a negative sorting filter that enables you to internalize only negative information from external sources that is accurate and useful

Enneagram Style Five
Obstacle to Discernment: Believing you can discern everything from your mind alone
How to allow Discernment: Access your emotions and your physical instincts more completely so you can use your mind, heart, and body to become more fully discerning

Enneagram Style Six
Obstacle to Discernment: Not being fully able to differentiate your projections – the product of your own inner life – from your insights, which also come from your keen mind and intuitive abilities
How to allow Discernment: Because your projections are accompanied with medium to strong emotional reactions and pure insights have none, learn to tell the difference between the two by paying close attention to your own internal reactions

Enneagram Style Seven
Obstacle to Discernment: Moving so quickly and pursuing the positive at the expense of acknowledging negative information that you don’t fully develop your ability to discern what is true from what is not

How allow Discernment: Learn to be still, internally and externally, so you can access your ability to discern in a far more refined way

Enneagram Style Eight
Obstacle to Discernment: Having such a strong desire to know the truth and trusting your gut reactions so exclusively
How to allow Discernment: Be truly open to new ideas and people without rushing to judgment or taking action so quickly

Enneagram Style Nine
Obstacle to Discernment: Not paying attention to yourself, your thoughts, and your reactions, especially your physical responses
How to allow Discernment: Allow the dormant volcano inside you to wake up and express itself

Enneagram Styles and Authenticity

2010-07-05T14:41:00.000-07:00

This blog was inspired by Ruth Landis’s insights about Authenticity. You can read about how each of us, based on our Enneagram styles, can be in a state of Authenticity, which is really about allowing us to be fully ourselves.

Whether you are a leader, coach, consultant, trainer, parent, or friend, Authenticity enables us to be truly ourselves at the deepest level. Ruth Landis is a Senior Member of the Enneagram in Business Network at TheEnneagramInBusiness.com.

Authenticity Insights

Authenticity is being at ease with oneself and an honest acceptance of who we really are. It is self-awareness without self-consciousness. It is a freedom from self-editing: I am not too little or too much – I am. I do not need to try to be more or less than what I am in this moment. Authenticity is being truly comfortable in your own skin. Today, catch yourself trying to be or responding in a way that does not feel true to your core, and make a more authentic choice. If you feel like skipping down the street, do it. If you feel like being silly, be silly. Feel the freedom of authentic response.

Authenticity and Enneagram Styles
I’ve added the following to help us understand how our Enneagram styles can block our capacity to be in Authenticity and how we can allow ourselves to be more fully in a state of realness.

Enneagram Style One
Obstacle to Authenticity: Restricting your own responses to those that seem well-mannered, appropriate, and polite
How to Be in Authenticity: To accept yourself, all of who you are, including your feelings, thoughts, and behaviors
Hint: Focus first on acknowledging your anger and resentment, examining its true causes

Enneagram Style Two
Obstacle to Authenticity: Being so dependent or responsive to the reactions of others for a sense of self-worth that you constrain yourself from being truly authentic
How to Be in Authenticity: To become less inflated or deflated based on how others respond to you
Hint: Focus first on being less elated or inflated when you get a positive response; this will lessen the deflation from a negative reaction

Enneagram Style Three
Obstacle to Authenticity: Identifying so strongly with the image or series of images you create so that others will respect you; this includes even having an image of no image!
How to Be in Authenticity: To acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures, realizing that what you do is not truly who you are at a deeper level
Hint: Focus first on your anxiety and sadness, accepting and experiencing these feelings as part of being human; then, share some of your deeper feelings with others

Enneagram Style Four
Obstacle to Authenticity: Believing that because you value authenticity and express yourself at a deeper and more complex level than other people, that you are actually being authentic
How to Be in Authenticity: To go beneath your image of being authentic to a deeper and truer authenticity
Hint: Focus first on the ways in which you create an interior pendulum in which you either feel inferior or superior to others; examine how you do this and what purpose it serves, then stop doing this and experience your more authentic sense of self

Enneagram Style Five
Obstacle to Authenticity: Not sharing who you really are with others, but this starts with not knowing fully yourself who you are in a more integrated way
How to Be in Authenticity: To explore yourself more fully without disconnecting from your emotions and actual experience and then be willing to share this with others
Hint: Focus first on experiencing your true feelings in real time rather than experiencing some of them later

Enneagram Style Six
Obstacle to Authenticity: Doubting yourself to such a degree that your true strength is invisible and engaging in risky behavior as an avoidance of feelings of fear
How to Be in Authenticity: To be calm, clear, and grounded as a way to trust yourself to be able to respond effectively to whatever comes your way
Hint: Focus first on grounding yourself physically through activities such as martial art, yoga, and breathing; instead of acting on your desire to take risks, use these impulses as a cue to ground yourself instead

Enneagram Style Seven
Obstacle to Authenticity: Avoiding 50% of life – the painful and uncomfortable
How to Be in Authenticity: To stay focused on activities, people, projects, and especially your own internal sensations and responses
Hint: Focus first on acknowledging and fully experiencing feelings, particularly pain, sorrow and anxiety, and feelings of discomfort; stay focused on your inner experience instead of distracting yourself by external stimuli

Enneagram Style Eight
Obstacle to Authenticity: Being so big, bold, and strong without acknowledging your vulnerability and weakness
How to Be in Authenticity: To be open, vulnerable, and innocent
Hint: Focus first on what you are feeling when you have an impulse to take charge or take action

Enneagram Style Nine
Obstacle to Authenticity: Not acknowledging or honoring your own opinions, desires, and feelings
How to Be in Authenticity: To be clear, steadfast, expressive, and true to yourself
Hint: Focus on awakening your body reactions; sensations, truth that needs to be said, and feelings that need to be experienced and expressed

Enneagram Styles and Being

2010-06-10T11:09:00.000-07:00

This blog was inspired by Ruth Landis’s insights about Being. You can read about how each of us, based on our Enneagram styles, can be in a state of Being, which is really allowing us to be fully ourselves.

Whether you are a leader, coach, consultant, trainer, parent, or friend, Being enables us to handle everything that comes our way with grace, dignity, and wisdom. Ruth Landis, Senior Member of the Enneagram in Business Network at TheEnneagramInBusiness.com offers the following Being activity.

Being Insights

Life begins in the stillness. Our real value rests in each breath we take and merely that we are alive. All else builds upon that. Each hour during the day, can you pause for a moment and become still- still in the mind, still in the body, and still in the heart? What do you have to shift in yourself to find that stillness? Once you have found it, can you appreciate that this is enough? Can you appreciate that everything you need to be is already here?

Being and Enneagram Styles
I’ve added the following to help us understand how our Enneagram styles can block our capacity to be in Being and how we can allow ourselves to be in Being.

Enneagram Style One
An Obstacle to Being: Controlling or structuring themselves and their environments so tightly for fear of making mistakes
How to Be in a State of Being: Give your discerning mind a rest, your opinions a vacation, your need to structure your life a temporary hiatus, and your continuous self-control a time to relax. Experiment with this for 30 minutes each day. This is Being in the now.

Enneagram Style Two
An Obstacle to Being: Getting out of touch with their inner lives without even realizing this, a result of focusing so much on other people
How to Be in a State of Being: Take real time for you. Allow yourself a minimum of one hour every week to do nothing but be with yourself with no other distractions, including other people, tasks, or things to do. Take a walk, watch a wonderful film, get a message, or enjoy your pet. As you do any of these things, be in the present moment at all times and experience what the present moment offers.

Enneagram Style Three
An Obstacle to Being: Being over-identified with socially acceptable goals rather than personal dreams and personal goals; intermixing who they are with what they do so extensively that they no longer know who they are
How to Be in a State of Being: Do you know the difference between Being and Doing? Most Threes find this question very confusing. That should be your clue that there is something profound in this question. Ask five people you know what Being is. Listen closely, ask questions, and see if there is some insight for you in their responses. Something that will help you start to be in Being rather than Doing is to be still for five minutes each day, doing absolutely nothing. Once you can do this, extend the time by five minutes each day. Remember that you can’t do Being; you have to be Being.

Enneagram Style Four
An Obstacle to Being: Confusing intense feelings for a state of Being
How to Be in a State of Being: Although you may feel most yourself when you experience intense feelings – this feels like being you to you – the state of being is less full of intensity and more filled with lightness. In a deeper state of being, there is a sense that the you who you know falls away and gives space for a profound quality of calm and balance. Think of this as being completely in the now. When your attention goes to the past, bring it back to now, and when your attention goes to the future, bring yourself back to the present, the now.

Enneagram Style Five
An Obstacle to Being: Relying so heavily on mental functioning without fully accessing or integrating the Heart Center and Body Centers
How to Be in a State of Being: Being requires integration; integration includes accessing and using your Head and Heart and Body. Being then requires full engagement, starting with yourself, then moving toward others. So start with more fully accessing either your emotions – ask yourself every hour what you are feeling and explore these emotions – or your body. Think of the latter as becoming more aware of and fully understanding your physical sensations, cues and gut-knowing. Once you more fully integrate your Three Centers of Intelligence, engage them on an ongoing basis.

Enneagram Style Six
An Obstacle to Being: Fretting, worrying, anticipating, preparing and other mental activities that distract from Being
How to Be in a State of Being: Most Sixes can’t command themselves to stop thinking, but they often find that grounding themselves in the Body Center helps dramatically. Risky physical activities that adrenalize you won’t ground you – they excite you – but walking, jogging, yoga, and other exercise will as long as you put your thinking aside when you are engaging in physical activity. Your physical groundedness then calms your mind and relaxes your emotional reactivity; this is fertile soil for Being.

Enneagram Style Seven
An Obstacle to Being: Needing chronic stimulation and activity, including constant physical movement
How to Be in a State of Being: To be in Being requires going inward, being still and focused, and this requires a dramatic shift in focus from you. The focus needs to be an inner one of physical, mental and emotional stillness. The key to this for you is to allow your emotions to reveal themselves to you and to explore them fully. Once you are able to do this – and it will take commitment, courage, and concentration – your mind will be more easily focused, your body will relax and less agitated, and you will be able to move far easily to Being, which is really about total focus on the present, the now.

Enneagram Style Eight
An Obstacle to Being: Being unwilling or unable to be vulnerable
How to Be in a State of Being: Being is a receptive state rather than an aggressive state. As a result, you’ll need to truly examine your need to move forward in big ways and understand your vulnerable feelings that lie beneath and are masked by the big action. Remember that Being is not inactive; it involves totally receptivity to everything.

Enneagram Style Nine
An Obstacle to Being: Confusing blending and merging for Being
How to Be in a State of Being: It is easy and seductive to confuse blending or merging with Being. However, blending and merging are fused states in which there is no you present, only that which you are merging with. To be in Being, you have to be fully present or awake. To do this, you have to pay attention to your self and acknowledge how you feel, what you think, and what you really want.

Famous Enneagram Eights: Margaret Thatcher and Donald Trump

2010-06-29T15:55:00.000-07:00

WORLDVIEW: The powerful try to take advantage of the weak; I must change this.

EIGHTS pursue the truth, want situations under control, strive to make important things happen, and try to hide their vulnerability.

Assertive, bold, and confident, Eights are highly independent, with a tendency to both protect and control people and events around them and a deep commitment to truth, justice, and equity or fairness. Most Eights are excessive in some way, particularly when they feel anxious or vulnerable. Because they strongly prefer to not show this side of themselves to others, perceiving such reactions as signaling weakness, Eights mask their tender side by engaging in excessiveness in a variety of forms: over-work, too much or too little exercise, erratic or unhealthy eating, and other forms of over-consumption such as incessant shopping or the purchasing of highly expensive items that they don’t really need.

Eights want to get their needs and desires met, want to make big things happen quickly, much akin to moving mountains, and most have a big presence even when they are saying little. Eights can also appear somewhat different from one another. Some Eights are very quiet with a low threshold for frustration; other Eights are social rebels and protective of others to an extreme; and some Eights are highly emotional, extraordinarily passionate, and enjoy being center stage.

In the following YouTube segments, you will see short clips of two famous Eights: Margaret Thatcher and Donald Trump. These clips are excellent examples of the Eights’ interpersonal style. They assert themselves using a voice modulated for effect. For example, Thatcher uses a strident voice and commanding eye contact, while Trump uses an assertive, even aggressive, voice to stake out his command of the situation. In both tapes, Thatcher and Trump are seeking to redress an imbalance, settle a score, and take control through their comments and tone.

Remember: While we can all highly value truth-telling and pursue justice, want to make big things happen, and have issues with not appearing weak, for Eights the pursuit of control and justice, and the avoidance of vulnerability, is their primary, persistent, and driving motivation.

Margaret Thatcher- Click here to see clip
In this interview (though you wouldn’t know it’s an interview until half way through), Thatcher has something she clearly intends to say; watch how she responds when the interviewer tries to insert a question of his own. She clearly doesn’t like the queries, and she uses a variety of tactics to make sure she’s in-charge.

Donald Trump- Click here to see clip
Watch Trump talk about his battle with Rosie O’Donnell. In this sequence of short clips, notice the following: Trump’s extreme language in describing O’Donnell; his unabashed comments about facing a fight; and how he suggests that his comments are a reaction to her accusations that he was going bankrupt.

Famous Enneagram Sevens: Cameron Diaz and Howard Stern

2010-05-20T12:07:00.000-07:00

WORLDVIEW: The world lacks a bigger plan full of possibilities; I must generate these.

SEVENS crave the stimulation of new ideas, people, and experiences, avoid pain and discomfort, and create elaborate plans that allow them to keep all of their options open.

Spontaneous, charming (most of the time!), and multitasking to an extreme, Sevens are upbeat, energetic, and need to feel that they have all options possible open to them. Elaborate future planners – dreamers or visionaries may be more apt descriptors – Sevens generate enthusiasm, push boundaries, and avoid painful experiences by conjuring up new ideas, engaging with people or activities that excite them, and by rationalizing negative experiences through a positive reframing of events.

Sevens have difficulty focusing as their attention shifts from one idea, activity, or person to the next that grabs their interest – that is, unless they have seriously disciplined themselves and/or done a great deal of self-development work on learning to focus – but they also have a contagious sense of optimism and infinite possibilities. Some Sevens create extensive social networks, a kind of collective surrogate family that gives them the support to make the best of every opportunity; other Sevens restrain their desire to have everything as a way to sacrifice themselves in the service of the group; and still other Sevens are unabashed dreamers, looking to everything new to stimulate and excite them.

In the following YouTube segments, you will see short clips of two famous Sevens: Cameron Diaz and radio personality Howard Stern. These clips are excellent examples of the Seven’s interpersonal style. Fast talking and even faster thinking, with a mental process that moves 1000 miles per hour and jumps from topic to topic, most Sevens say what’s on their minds as soon as they think it. What may be loosely connected items to the rest of us (non-Sevens) are expressed in rapid fire, and their voices are filled with enthusiasm and energy.

Remember: While we can all be creative thinkers, enjoy the rush of adrenalin, and use rationalization as a way to both explain and excuse our behavior, for Sevens, the pursuit of pleasure and stimulation and the avoidance of pain and discomfort is their primary, persistent, and driving motivation.

Cameron Diaz - Click here to see clip
Soon after Diaz’s famous split with Justin Timberlake (who broke up with her in a highly publicized way), Ellen DeGeneres asks how she is doing post breakup. Listen as Diaz makes a clearly painful situation sound like the best thing that could happen to anyone, a great example of the Sevens' ability to use positive reframing in even the most difficult circumstances.

Howard Stern - Click here to see clip
David Letterman interviews radio host Howard Stern. Watch Stern’s physical movements and stream of consciousness monologues. Notice how Letterman has difficulty stepping into the conversation as Stern talks without appearing to pause or take a breath.

Enneagram and Service

2010-05-10T16:02:00.000-07:00

This blog was inspired by Ruth Landis' insights about Service. You can read about how each of us, based on our Enneagram style, can be in true service, which affects our capacity to be all of what we are capable of being. Whether we are a leader, coach, consultant, trainer, parent, or friend, Service is central to being fully in the world.

Service Activity by Ruth Landis, Senior Member of The Enneagram in Business Network:

When we are in service to others and the world, we are ultimately in service to ourselves since we are a part of all that is. Take an inventory of your inner and outer resources and your personal abundance. Today, consciously choose to offer up some form of service without any attachment to receiving anything in return. Since you are coming from abundance you need nothing back. If your offering is rejected, let it go. The offering itself and the “no strings attached” feeling is the gift you give yourself. If your offering of service is accepted, give it freely and thank the other for the opportunity to serve.

Service and Enneagram Styles

I’ve added the following to help us understand how our Enneagram styles can block our capacity to be in service and what we can each do to act from a place of true service.

Enneagram Style One

An obstacle to being in service: having too many items on your “to-do” lists to either have the time to engage in service or to take pleasure in the moments in which you offer service

To act from a place of true service, structure service into your life at regular intervals and when you are engaged in service, enjoy every moment of your actions rather than treating these moments as tasks to be completed.

Enneagram Style Two

An obstacle to being in service: misconstruing “giving” for true service

To act from a place of true service, take a very hard look at yourself when you are about to offer service and ask yourself: Why am I doing this? Is it to feel good about myself? What if they don’t want what I offer? Can I fully accept this without feeling bad about myself or the person who refused in any way? Can I engage in service from a place of true humility, not from a place where I feel better about myself or feel more worthy because I am doing it?

Enneagram Style Three

An obstacle to being in service: confusing the creation of an image of someone who does philanthropy with someone who offers true service without the need for recognition or status

To act from a place of true service, ask yourself: What if I offered or engaged in service and no one else knew about it? If your answer is that you would still do it and find great value for yourself, then you are on the path to true service. But if you would not feel as inclined to offer your help, then it is time to examine why you do what you do – that is, are you engaging in service primarily to gain social respect?

Enneagram Style Four

An obstacle to being in service: feeling taken advantage of when offering too much time and self in the service of something or someone

To act from a place of true service, notice and count the ways in which a voice in you arises that says this: What about me? There are two ways to understand this. One way is that you may have over-extended yourself because you do not really value your own pursuits; if so, work on setting clearer boundaries. The other way to understand this What about me? voice is that it is a deep voice in you that wants a great deal but never seems satisfied; if so, get to know that voice and what it really needs. When you feel more internally satisfied, it will be easier for you to offer true service.

Enneagram Style Five

An obstacle to being in service: maintaining a mindset of scarcity that causes you to withhold your resources

To act from a place of true service, recognize that scarcity is merely an idea; so is abundance. And when you give, give not only your money and ideas -- your time, feelings, engagement, and commitment matter just as much if not more.

Enneagram Style Six

An obstacle to being in service: pursuing service in support of your own need to belong or to fight for underdog causes, rather than for the act of service itself

To act from a place of true service, realize that when you strongly identify with a group that suffers, or when you want to fight the good fight on behalf of others, you can do a great deal of good; but true service is done without these attachments: it is done purely for the act of doing without the doer receiving secondary benefits.

Enneagram Style Seven

An obstacle to being in service: being able to continue with the service you are offering when it’s no longer exciting, new, and stimulating to you

To act from a place of true service, follow your heart and keep it open, and true service will come quite naturally to you. The challenge for you is to be stable, secure, and certain in your Heart Center.

Enneagram Style Eight

An obstacle to being in service: being fueled in your service by your need for justice, control, and to feel big, rather than offering service from a place of pure equality

To act from a place of true service, practice service in small ways, including actions that might be humbling to you. Instead of thinking large and acting big, serve with humble gratitude.

Enneagram Style Nine

An obstacle to being in service: going through the motions – even if doing so with pleasure – of providing service rather than being conscious and aware at every moment when you offer service

To act from a place of true service, when you do engage in service, stay awake, alert, and fully conscious in every action, thought, and feeling. True service can be transformative.

This is the fifth of a twelve part series titled “Enneagram Insights.”

Enneagram Typing: a guest blog by Peter O’Hanrahan

2010-05-05T11:03:00.000-07:00

Up Close With Enneagram Style Eight

In our attempt to understand the Enneagram, we create images in our minds of each of the nine types. It's how we learn, getting these categories down in our minds and associating people we know to these categories: what they look like, how they talk, what kind of feeling they evoke in us. The challenge is to keep open to new learning, which is not always easy. Maybe because the Enneagram is so important to us that we tend to get fixed (or fixated) in our opinions.

It never ceases to amaze me that people will come up to me at workshops that I teach and say: "You can't be an Eight; you're not angry enough!" Of course, I would prefer that they say, "You are unusual in my experience of Eights, unlike what I thought Eights would be." After all, I am the teacher with some 32 years of intense Enneagram self-work. I know what type I am, at least in this system. As we say over and over again, it ain't the external behavior, it's the internal character structure and motivation. (And it's not the facial characteristics or body posture, either.)

Now it's true that sometimes a person’s type just shouts out at us. Even a person walking down the street can signal so much through their body language. We can honor our impressions while not assuming we can be 100% certain (if you are really good, think 49%). When I first attended the Palmer/Daniels training program in 1991, I had been teaching the Enneagram for 10 years. I thought I was great at typing people, reading their bodies and attitudes, etc. What I discovered was that I was right only half the time (pretty good actually since there are nine types), but if I wanted to get to greater accuracy, I had to interview people at length about how they think and feel on the inside. In my experience with the EPTP typing interview protocol, 5 out of 10 people are pretty straightforward, 4 out of 10 are challenging but you can get there, and with 1 out of 10, you just can't pin it down. Ultimately people have to discover the type for themselves. Yes, it's frustrating when some pick what we think is the "wrong" type. We just want to tell them, convince them otherwise. But we have to offer our opinion in a very respectful way. Having been spectacularly wrong with a number of people, I have learned to be more careful, both for their benefit and my own pride.

I teach regularly in China where people are pretty new to the Enneagram, and I find a lot of stereotyping. Not only that, but they will argue very loudly, even at times yelling at people on panels (until I re-direct them). Great enthusiasm; poor knowledge base. They say, “It's about the way people dress!” For example, they might say that if you are an attractive woman who dresses very well, then you must be a Three. One thing I can say about the young Chinese, they are very assertive! During introductions almost everyone vigorously shouts out their name and profession. You'd think there weren't any Twos, Fives, phobic Sixes or Nines in the room. By contrast in Brazil, so many people appear to be Sevens. Of course, they are not all Sevens; it's just a very Seven culture.

When I was a young Eight -- I'm thinking early 20's -- I was so angry and uptight that everywhere I went dogs would bark, small children would run to their mothers, and people would give me a wide berth. My purpose in life was revenge: against the church, the school system, and the political establishment (this was during the height of the Vietnam War). I was good at vengeance, or as I would have said, seeking justice and making trouble for unjust institutions and people. I drew the line at physical violence. This proved to be awful for my personal relationships and health, but it took a while for me to get this. Fortunately, I had loyal friends who called me in for an "intervention." Led by a type One, they said: "We love you, but you can't go on this way; you have to change." (Hey, it took eight of them to face me down, but it worked.) This, and the end of the war, started me on a path of healing which led to major changes in my character structure.

While I appreciate Sandra Maitri's notion that our true "soul child" is found at our heart point, and our personality type is some kind of compensatory structure, I have to disagree. I was born an Eight; I have the soul of an Eight; I come from a long line of Eights tracking back through Irish history to the Vikings. (A big thanks to the civilizing influence of the Celts.) I do have a Two heart point, and I have traveled there a lot. Being partnered with a Two for 10 years – plus being a counselor -- pulled me into that space to the point where I had many of the problems, as well as potentials, of Two. But eventually I integrated back to Eight, albeit with a much bigger heart center.

I don't get real mad at people who think I'm not an Eight, although I do feel that they are missing out on my story and my history of inner and outer work. Mostly I think they have a lot more to learn about the Enneagram types. As Bea Chestnut describes in her article, subtypes really make a difference. So do body types. As an Eight in a small body, and one who was regularly beaten at home and at school, I just didn’t have the physical confidence that I see in large-bodied Eights. As a good social subtype Eight, I started groups for strength and protection. After I was knocked around in a Rajneesh workshop in the late 70's, I started pumping iron and I'm 35 lbs bigger now! (In my revengeful way, I'd say the best guru is a dead guru, that way they can be rehabilitated like Rajneesh/Osho and can't screw things up with their own narcissism.)

You know, the really wonderful message of the Enneagram is that we are not locked into our type structure if we do the work. We can transform ourselves at a deep level! I know this personally from many years of being immersed in healing work, body therapy, and growth stuff. I'm just not the same angry guy I used to be; although I still get angry a lot, I know how to let it go. My 35 years of practice as a counselor also had profound affects. I learned to be quiet and receptive to others, giving them the space. This developed my Two, my Five and my Nine spaces. I'm sure that in another profession I would have come out differently. Early on I thought I'd be a lawyer; interesting to speculate how that would have affected my personality.

Have you ever met an introverted Seven, a warm-hearted Five, a happy Four? How about a gentle Eight or an assertive Two? Then you know there is plenty of variety within the types having to do with subtype, family and cultural backgrounds, and also levels of development. As we discuss other people's types, friends, family, and public figures, we can have strong opinions but at the same time we need to know that we don't always know. At least, it's been a good lesson for this Eight.

Peter O’Hanrahan is a seasoned Enneagram teacher, counselor, and business consultant with special expertise in the 27 Enneagram subtypes as well as somatics and the Enneagram. POhanrahan@aol.com

Enneagram Typing: Up Close and Personal

2010-05-03T12:02:00.000-07:00

After writing about typing, mistyping, and stereotyping and asking Bea Chestnut to guest blog on the topic of Enneagram typing and the Enneagram subtypes, I decided to get up close and personal about why this topic matters so much to me.

There are people in the Enneagram community who seem to engage in indirect speculation that I can’t possibly be an Enneagram Two. I almost never hear this from anyone directly; it is almost always through another person who knows me well and gets annoyed or incensed on my behalf, then eventually mentions it to me. Why do people discredit the idea that I am a Two?

“She’s too successful and forward moving.” [Aha, she’s a Three]
“She has too much personal energy to be a Two.” [Aha, she’s an Eight]
”She’s not as warm, loving, and flattering as Twos are supposed to be.” [Oh, she can’t be a Two]
”She has very high standards.” [Aha, she must be a One]

Of course, these are usually people who don’t know me personally and thus have a limited frame of reference, yet they are so sure they are correct. At first, I was amused. As it continues, I feel more annoyed. Why do people care so much about this? What makes them so sure that they know my type accurately and I do not?

Upon first exposure to the Enneagram, I thought I was a Four, and although Helen Palmer wasn’t so sure about this, it seemed the best fit. After working with style Four development activities for 10 years, the Enneagram Four issues seemed to be melting away. Then in 2003, I met Claudio Naranjo. Over a dinner, I asked him this: “I’ve always thought I was a Four; what do you think?”

As his hand stroked his very long beard, Claudio said: “No, not a Four. You are too consistently warm – not the unpredictable warm-retracted Four dynamic – and you have an essentially sunny outlook. Plus, most Fours have a deep reservoir of anger, and I don’t sense that from you. Maybe a Two?”

The idea I might be a Two shocked me, and I had a panic attack. Not knowing much about social subtype Twos and having met only a few of them, I had not identified with style Two. My high level of discomfort and anxiety, which I rarely feel, got my attention that I needed to seriously consider that I might be a Two. I had never had this experience when I thought I was a Four.

Still highly anxious, I asked my then “boyfriend,” also an Enneagram teacher, if he would still love me if I were a Two. His answer, a good one: “I love a person, not a number.”

I asked my then 11-year old son – who has known the Enneagram well since he was six years-old and is an ace at typing people – what he thought, and this was his reply: “Mom, you may be a Four in the world, but you’re a Two to me.” As more panic set in, I saw my whole life in front of me like a movie. The child who had been free-spirited and happy and then… at age four, the trouble started.

Without going into great detail about the trouble, let me just say that I experienced just about every level of trauma possible from the time I was four until I left home at 18. Most of it was directed at me; some of it came more forcefully toward my siblings. At the center of it was my mother, a borderline personality with the charm and attractiveness of a movie star and the potency to create dysfunction wherever she went.

The Two child in me would literally not have survived in that household, and so it became clear that I retreated into a solitary place in the Enneagram; in Enneagram style Four, I could be alone, feel some feelings in a safe-enough environment, engage in philosophical pondering which was, in the end, my salvation. When I married in my early 20s, I became a battered wife; in the early 1970s, few people were aware of this issue. My then-husband once told me, “I love you so much, but if you stay with me, either I will kill you or you will kill yourself.”

This was my wake-up call, one that led me to pursue modern therapy, learn to be a Gestalt therapist myself, and engage in every development path that seemed fruitful; Rolfing, Psychosynthesis, the arts, tai chi, meditation, ashrams in India, and more. My colleague and friend Bea Chestnut refers to people who have engaged in serious and productive self-development work as “well-processed” and those who have not as “not processed.” In this latter category are people who have the knowledge and do the activities, but don’t seem to grow and transform from them. I always laugh when she says this, but wonder at times if I might be “over-processed.”

I am not perfect, that is not my pursuit, and I never think about it (no, not a One); I don’t like goals very much, have had one or two over my whole life that got quickly eliminated as something more powerful arose in it’s place, plus I really dislike marketing even though it has to be done (no, not a Three); and I don’t like conflict very much, will engage in it if I have to – which is seldom – and while I am intrigued by observing power dynamics, I rarely get into power and control issues with people. My current personal work has more to do with not repressing my anger than learning to manage its expression (no, not an Eight).

I’m more of a free spirit at heart, identifying more with a butterfly or a hummingbird than a bear or an oak tree. There are other teachers in the Enneagram community about whom people like to speculate. Take Peter O’Hanrahan, who many people say can’t be an Eight because he appears so mellow and never seems angry. For those who speculate, I make this suggestion: talk to Peter directly and let him explain. And learn more about social subtype Eights with a Nine wing and a link to arrow Five. And learn more about Peter from Peter, not from your idea of Peter.

To end with a story: In a client group during a typing session, a man identified himself as an Enneagram Eight, but he had the highest voice I’d ever heard from a man, much less an Eight male, whose voices usually come from deep their belly center. At the break, we went aside, and I said this: “You identify as an Eight, yet most Eights I know have deep voices that come from low in their bodies. Yours is much higher. There may be a reason from your background and experience that explains your higher voice, though there is no need to tell me this story.” He said, “There is a reason!” We both smiled and left it at that.

Thanks to Bea Chestnut, Senior Member of the Enneagram in Business Network (EIBN), for her guest blog on typing, stereotyping and subtypes.

And to Peter O’Hanrahan, Enneagram teacher and Senior Member of the EIBN, who will be writing the next guest blog on the topic of Enneagram typing.

Enneagram Typing, Stereotyping, and Subtypes: a guest blog by Beatrice Chestnut

2010-04-30T11:56:00.000-07:00

In Light of the Power of Enneagram Types and Subtypes

Ginger’s blog on the issue of stereotyping with the Enneagram struck me as extremely important and motivated a desire to weigh in on this crucial subject; minimally, avoiding stereotypes should be seen as crucial to anyone who values the Enneagram as a serious map that can aid human development and transformation.

Whomever said that Nines are “big, fat, visceral, slow,” (and thus President Obama cannot be a Nine) was not only expressing a depth of ignorance that endangers the integrity of the Enneagram; this comment exemplifies the real harm the Enneagram can do when it is used so casually and thoughtlessly by people who really don’t know what they are doing. This person’s superficial stereotype of “all Nines” is exactly why seminal teachers like A. H. Almaas, Oscar Ichazo, and Claudio Naranjo each in their own way, have chosen to embed the study of the Enneagram into a deep and broad program of self-development work and not promote it as a stand-alone “tool” for everyday use by the untutored and undeveloped individual.

As a Two, I have often been surprised by how specific individuals misunderstand my own personality as I experience it. I see this happen a lot when people type individual’s whom I believe to be Twos as Threes, simply because they are successful. Certainly Oprah can’t be a Two – which I believe she is – because she’s so over-the-top successful. She has to be a Three, right? Another person told me she did not want to be a Two because “Twos are doormats.” It’s this shallow, uneducated tossing around of stereotypes that makes people outside the Enneagram community rightly stereotype the Enneagram system itself as a superficial, new-agey, pop psychology fad that puts people in boxes and won’t let them out. When these silly stereotypes are perpetuated, it makes the Enneagram appear superficial, limiting, and judgmental, a meaningless and harmful way of categorizing the human character.

Of course, for people who regard the Enneagram with too much reverence to make blanket statements stereotyping “all Nines” or “all Twos” or “all Sixes,” the system is too complex and too dynamic to clumsily adhere to narrow definitions. One way that I have come to appreciate another level of this complexity – and also learn again not to resort to stereotypes – is through studying Claudio Naranjo’s 2004 version of the instinctual subtypes. The additional information Naranjo provided about subtypes in his 3-day workshop at the 2004 International Enneagram Association (IEA) conference showed me a totally new dimension of the system that both helped me understand more about myself and showed me another aspect of the dangerous likelihood of mistyping and misunderstanding type in a stereotypic way.

Naranjo discussed the subtypes in a way I’d never heard before, and I learned a great deal about the subtle dimensions this added to my sense of the nine types. When you know all 27 types as he described them, it makes the possibility of stereotyping clearer and more obvious. For instance, I believe most all people think all Threes are like Social Threes, when the Self-Preservation and the One-to-One versions of the Three are actually quite different from the stereotypic Social Three who likes to be in the spotlight. The Self-Preservation Three can look a lot like a Type One; and the One-to-One Three can look like a Type Two. There is a One that looks like an Eight (the One-to-One 1), a Two that can look like a Six (the Self-Preservation 2), a Four that resembles a One (the Self-Preservation 4), an Eight that can appear Fivish (the Self-Preservation 8), a Seven that looks Twoish (the Social 7), and yes, a Nine that resembles a Three (the Social 9).

So, if you are prone to stereotyping – just throwing everyone who superficially resembles one or another of your own very narrow pictures of what the types are into the same small box – you are likely to get it wrong a lot of the time and give the Enneagram a bad name in the process. For all of the nine types, there are subtypes that can look similar to other types. And this is just one example of why you have to know a lot more than some people appear to know before you go limiting people to small boxes of your own ignorant making.

Finally, a word about body types. As anyone who is acquainted with more than a few people of one type knows, it would appear that there is more than one narrowly defined body type associated with each type. I know some curvy Nines and some slim, athletic Nines, some slender Twos and some full-figured Twos. I think the evidence we all have – and this comes from knowing people of different types – bears this out, and this simple fact should warn against saying that all the people of one type share one specific characteristic. This kind of narrow stereotype of a particular type just seems so obviously wrong to me, and I believe this is one of the biggest reasons the Enneagram isn’t more popular or used more widely today than it is – too many people like Mr. “Nines are fat” are using it badly and holding the whole enterprise back.

Bea Chestnut, Ph.D., is a psychotherapist in private practice and an Enneagram teacher and business consultant who resides in San Francisco, California. She has a forthcoming book on the 27 Enneagram subtypes and recently authored a recent article in the Enneagram Monthly: “Obama is a 9, not a 3.” E-mail: bmchestnut2@sbcglobal.net

Enneagram Typing and Stereotyping

2010-04-27T13:28:00.000-07:00

Two months ago, I posted on my YouTube channel a short video clip addressing the question “What Type is Barack Obama?” which drew over 400 views (to see the clip, click here). While I’ve received many e-mails of agreement that he is most likely a Nine, this e-mail came from a viewer: “Barack Obama is a 3 wing 4, hands down. He has nothing, I mean NOTHING of a 9. Nines are either: Big, Fat, Visceral, Slow. Barack has nothing of that.”

It ‘s not the disagreement about his Enneagram style that bothers me because discussions and differences in opinion about the Enneagram styles of famous people can be constructive and healthy, particularly given that we don’t know them personally and they haven’t identified their style themselves. At the same time, the reasons for why we believe a person is a certain style – as well as the logic and intuition behind it -- do matter, and this particular e-mail motivated me to write this blog. My intention is to question if not to debunk the stereotypes that can be a hazard of working with systems such as the Enneagram.

Nines
Are Nines big, fat, visceral, and slow? Actually, Nines can be large or small, slim or heavier. And many Nines are average in size. The Dalai Lama, for example, is most likely a Nine, and he is neither “big” nor “fat,” and neither is Sandra Bullock, also a likely Nine. And while Enneagram style Nine is a type formed from the Body Center of Intelligence (hence, the term “visceral”), Nines are often referred to as “anger that went to sleep,” which means that they can easily be out of touch with their anger, and they do this partly by being less in contact with their Body Center or visceral responses. In fact, many Nines initially identify more with being from the Heart Center of Intelligence (Two, Three, or Four), and some Nines are highly intellectual and may mistake themselves for Fives, a style that resides in the Head Center of Intelligence. Finally, while some Nines can be slow in terms of taking action, many Nines are highly active. In fact, social subtype Nines in particular can work themselves to exhaustion on behalf of groups or organizations without even noticing that they are depleted. The “slowness” for Nines may be confused with not paying sufficient attention to their own wants, intentions, and opinions, but would not at all relate to being slow in any other sense.

Ones
We can all be part of this confusion when we stereotype the Enneagram types rather than understand some of the nuances involved with the nine different styles. Ones, for example, may be inaccurately stereotyped as lean, rigid, and cold. The problem is that some Ones carry more physical weight, some perceive things in more flexible ways - for example, believing that the world is best understood in terms of shades of gray - and many Ones are quite warm, particularly if they have a Two wing.

Twos
How might Twos be stereotyped - sugary sweet, continually smiling, non-intellectual, and lacking in personal or organizational power? While some Twos act extremely sweet and smile frequently, others do not and are far more serious. In addition, social subtype Twos are more intellectual and emit more personal power than do the other two subtypes of style Two, but other Twos may also have these characteristics - that is, intellectual and personally powerful - depending on their level of self-mastery and their cultural/family backgrounds. Understanding a person’s context, level of development, and subtype is so important in identifying a person’s Enneagram style.

Threes
Are all Threes limelight seekers, lacking in depth and honesty? Are they all successful, svelte and attractive, with adroit interpersonal skills? Some of these attributes may be perceived as positive and some as negative, but none of them describe all Threes accurately. Some Threes are uncomfortable front and center stage (social subtype Threes most enjoy this); others have great depth and would never perceive themselves as being anything other than direct and honest (however, the lack of honesty refers more to self-honesty about who they really are); and some Threes are not particularly attractive (though this is in the eyes of the beholder), often displaying a lack of nuance in their interpersonal interactions.

Fours
The stereotype that is common for Fours is that they are drama queens or kings, like a great deal of attention, tend to be weepy all the time, and are great artists. In other words, if they are not involved in the arts in some way, how can they be Fours? The truth is that many Fours do not like to command attention, nor do they engage in outright drama. One-to-one subtype Fours may do this more than the other two subtypes, but not all one-to-one subtype Fours create such drama. In addition, many Fours do not feel sad or depressed any more than individuals of the other styles, and they are not all artistic. In fact, self-preservation Fours often appear more like Threes in their constant activity and sophistication, or they can be look-alikes for Sevens because they are constantly seeking new experiences.

Fives
Would it be fair to say that you can tell who is a Five and who is not by the lack of emotional response or social engagement, the intellectual orientation, or the lean physique? This would be a gross stereotype that does not take into account subtype, self-mastery level, culture, and wing. When Fives engage in self-development work, they often become even more emotionally expressive than others, and social subtype Fives can engage easily with others, albeit more about ideas than feelings. For them, mental engagement feels intimate. In Brazil, the Seven cultural overlay is so strong that Brazilian Fives can appear extroverted and social, even if they prefer not to do so. Fives with a Four wing can have deep and rich emotional lives, and there are many Fives who have larger physiques.

Sixes
Sixes are complex and determining if someone is a Six by external characteristics is especially challenging. What if they don’t look fearful? Counterphobic Sixes can appear fearless, even invincible, sometimes like Eights and even like a combination of Three and Nine – that is, driven like Threes and mellow like Nines. The “fearful” stereotype that often goes with Six more often describes the highly phobic Six, but even then, when a phobic Six has a strong Seven wing, the person may appear far more carefree and fun-loving. And some Sixes have a very strong link to their arrow lines Three and Nine, making them appear less doubtful and/or more mellow, respectively. Of course, the drive or motivation underneath the personality of all Sixes is fear, but it can be difficult for some Sixes to recognize this in themselves and since we can all be fearful or anxious at times, it can be highly misleading to perceive an anxious person as a Six or non-visibly anxious person as not a Six.

Sevens
Are all Sevens unfocused, scattered, non-empathic, and superficial? While many Sevens struggle with maintaining their focus, many have learned to do so. For example, a Seven who works in information technology describes it this way: “I learned how to focus at an early age because a teacher I admired told me I had to do this. So I focus and get everything done so I can reward myself afterwards by doing whatever I want.” What about Sevens being non-empathic? In fact, many of them work very effectively in hospice settings because they do care so deeply and can also bring a positive point of view to a difficult situation. Superficial? Many Sevens do deep dives into areas that interest them, and this is especially true when they have a strong link to their Five arrow line.

Eights
Are all Eights tough, dominating, and unwilling to show their tender vulnerable side? Are they all ”big?” Not at all! Eights come in a variety of sizes. I know a female Eight who is 5 feet tall and weighs 100 pounds. Many Eights are sweet and strong and don’t try to dominate others – though they do want things under control. And the one-to-one subtype Eights can be highly emotionally expressive, cry easily in front of others, and appear quite vulnerable. Inversely, both males and females can get mistyped as Eights. For example, a Korean colleague once told me this: “In Korea, all men are expected to act like Eights, and all females are supposed to be like Nines. Many men mistype themselves as do many women.” In the US, many Eight women do not initially identify as Eights because the US female stereotype is that women should be less assertive and less powerful. As a result, Eight women may mistype themselves (or be mistyped) as their wings Nine or Seven, or as their arrow line of Two. Inversely, some women perceived to be assertive can get mistyped as Eights.

Summary
Enneagram style is so important in uncovering who we are, determining the best development approaches to take, and in the creation of a more conscious and compassionate society. To do so, it is equally important to really understand the Enneagram systems and the nine styles in non-stereotypical, nuanced ways and to take into account arrows, wings, culture, gender, self-mastery levels, and subtypes. In Obama’s case, it can be challenging to identify his Enneagram style since he appears to be at such a high level of personal development. When individuals are high in self-mastery, their Enneagram styles tend to be less apparent externally because they are less reactive and more relaxed.

In the coming days, Beatrice Chestnut Ph.D, Enneagram teacher, therapist, business consultant and coach -- with a forthcoming book on Enneagram subtypes -- will be writing a guest blog on the importance and nature of the 27 Enneagram subtypes as they relate to mistyping and stereotyping.

Famous Enneagram Sixes: Woody Allen, Jennifer Aniston, and Richard Branson

2010-04-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

WORLDVIEW: The world is a volatile, unpredictable, and fearful place; I must find meaning and certainty.

SIXES have insightful minds and create anticipatory or worst-case scenarios to help themselves feel prepared in case something goes wrong. Some Sixes, called counterphobic Sixes, do not appear fearful because they move directly into the fearful situation to prove they are not afraid.

Sharp minded, insightful, and loyal, Sixes are issue identifiers and problem solvers, with a mental-emotional antenna that is finely attuned to anticipate problems before they occur so that alternative paths and contingency plans can be created to try to ensure the best outcome and prevent the worst from happening. Although the above description applies to all Sixes, Sixes are complex individuals who run the gamut from phobic Sixes such as Woody Allen, who are overtly and palpably fearful, to counterphobic Sixes such as Richard Branson, who often mask their fear by taking huge risks that adrenalize them and prove to them, at least for the moment, that they are not fearful. And then there are Sixes who are in the middle of the phobic-counterphobic continuum – for example, Jennifer Aniston.

All Sixes worry as a habit of mind, although some Sixes call it instantaneous anticipatory planning or problem solving and other Sixes do this so naturally that they no longer notice it. There are also key differences among Sixes. Some Sixes deal with their concerns by becoming warm, inviting, and by developing strong and loyal social alliances as a way to feel safe; other Sixes become extraordinarily dutiful and try to know and adhere to the “rules” as a way to not get in trouble by going astray; and still other Sixes – the highly counterphobic ones – unconsciously turn against their fear with demonstrations of strength as a way to convince themselves and others of their bravery. In reality, most phobic Sixes have some counterphobic qualities – for example, they can become aggressive toward authority or authority figures – and most counterphobic Sixes do display fears and concerns to those they trust or through their non-verbal behavior.

In the following YouTube segments, you will see three short clips of famous Sixes: one clip illustrates the phobic Six (Woody Allen), another illuminates the counterphobic Six (Richard Branson), and a third shows a Six with equal amounts of phobia and counterphobia (Jennifer Aniston). Among the three clips, you can see the similarities in interpersonal style, as well as observe their common warmth, genuineness (relative lack of pretentiousness), candor, agility in expressing concerns, and willingness to talk truthfully about themselves.

Remember: While we can all worry, be insightful, and want to feel well-prepared for the various scenarios life offers, for Sixes, the pursuit of meaning, certainty, and trust, and the avoidance of negative scenarios is their primary, persistent, and driving motivation.

Woody Allen (phobic) - Click here to see clip

In this interview, Woody Allen is more serious than funny -- although he is still amusing in certain segments -- as he talks about his life concerns, his view of the world, and his career ups and downs. He even talks about how his life must be good because it isn’t bad!

Jennifer Aniston (mixed phobic counterphobic) - Click here to see clip

In this interview with Diane Sawyer, one that predates her divorce from Brad Pitt, Aniston reveals her questioning orientation, her fears and sweetness, and her highly active mind.

Richard Branson (counterphobic) - Click here to see clip
In this interview, Branson describes his life as one of extremes, his survival instincts, and his willingness and pleasure in facing somewhat daunting circumstances.

The Enneagram, Alignment, and Integrity

2010-04-07T12:22:00.000-07:00

This blog was inspired by Ruth Landis' insights about Alignment and Integrity. You can read about how each of us, based on our Enneagram styles, can be in and out of alignment and integrity, which affects our capacity to be all of what we are capable of being. Whether we are a leader, coach, consultant, trainer, parent, or friend, Alignment and Integrity are central to our self-respect and the way we carry yourselves in the world.

Alignment and Integrity Activity by Ruth Landis, Senior Member of The Enneagram in Business Network:

Since we optimally operate from three Centers of Intelligence -- the Head, the Heart, and the Body -- we benefit from moving through our lives with these centers in alignment. At various times throughout the day, pause and ask yourself: "What am I feeling right now and what do I really want? What am I thinking right now? How am I behaving? Are these three states – thinking, feeling, and behaving -- congruent or at odds? Are my thoughts supporting the desire of my heart or undermining it? Are my actions serving both my heart and my rational mind? What do I need to do to bring my thoughts, my feelings, and my actions into alignment?"

Alignment, Integrity, and Enneagram Styles

I’ve added the following to help us understand how our Enneagram styles can block our capacity to act from integrity and be internally aligned and what we can each do to expand in these ways.

Enneagram Style One

An obstacle to alignment and integrity: wanting so much to live up to your own high standards that you disown your own reactions and behaviors that are not consistent with these

To become more aligned and have more integrity, accept yourself more and be more forgiving when you do not always feel or act in ways congruent with your standards; this will allow you to be more accepting of others.

Enneagram Style Two

An obstacle to alignment and integrity: feeling deeply hurt and angry when someone suggests you have done something of questionable integrity

To become more aligned and have more integrity, listen and ask for more information, and remember to not place your own sense of integrity in the hands of other people. When you can completely trust your own internal sense of who you are, it will be far easier to accept negative feedback and either use it or not use it, depending on its validity.

Enneagram Style Three

An obstacle to alignment and integrity: being so overly concerned about your public image and being successful that you either forget your true values or act out of alignment with them

To become more aligned and have more integrity, take 15 minutes each day to remind yourself and reflect on the values you hold most dear and ask yourself: "What do I know is going to happen today that may push me to compromise these in some way?" When you do something that transgresses your values, pay attention to your body cues that indicate you are not being true to yourself.

Enneagram Style Four

An obstacle to alignment and integrity: having shifting values that make it difficult to anchor your behavior in any of them as fully as you most desire

To become more aligned and have more integrity, work to stay more emotionally steady so you can better assess your own behavior in very objective rather than highly subjective terms.

Enneagram Style Five

An obstacle to alignment and integrity: rigidly controlling the degree to which other people and events affect you

To become more aligned and have more integrity, recognize that integrity and alignment require an interactive engagement with others and events. Integrity and values involve more than what we think; they also involve how we feel and what we do.

Enneagram Style Six

An obstacle to alignment and integrity: putting a spin on your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors -- a positive spin on those that are out of integrity and alignment, but also a negative spin on responses that are high on integrity and alignment

To become more aligned and have more integrity, be more fully honest with yourself, and this involves recognizing projections, valuing your insights, and a reduction in subsequent idealization or its opposite – demonization. You may recognize that you do these things to others, but do you know that you also do them to yourself?

Enneagram Style Seven

An obstacle to alignment and integrity: pursuing pleasure and excitement without due consideration

To become more aligned and have more integrity, remember that impulse is not the same as choice. Impulse is reactive; choice is thoughtful. With more pre-thought before you act, there is more choice, freedom, integrity, and alignment.

Enneagram Style Eight

An obstacle to alignment and integrity: believing you are the upholders of the truth

To become more aligned and have more integrity, question yourself far more often and when you feel certain of something, ask yourself this: "What if this were not the whole answer?"

Enneagram Style Nine

An obstacle to alignment and integrity: acting as if you don’t have opinions and judgments about others and events when you, in fact, do

To become more aligned and have more integrity, share your real thoughts out loud with others. Only then can you accurately perceive the ways in which you are truly aligned with what you truly feel and believe.

This is the fourth of a twelve part series titled “Enneagram Insights.”